OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY.
GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
VOL. I
The following works by Sir Harry Johnston treat-
ing of other parts of Africa outside the Congo basin,
give additional information on questions of Ethnology,
Languages, History, Botany, and Zoology dealt with
in George Grenfett and the Congo.
THE RIVER CONGO FROM ITS MOUTH TO
BOLOBO (2nd Edition, 1894, Sampson Low).
THE LIFE OF LIVINGSTONE (George Philip).
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA (Methuen).
THE COLONIZATION OF AFRICA BY ALIEN
RACES (Cambridge University Press).
THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE (Hutchinson).
THE NILE QUEST (Alston Rivers).
LIBERIA (Hutchinson).
THE BANTU LANGUAGES: Encyclopaedia Brit-
annica, 10th and nth Editions (Imies Office).
^£W Mgt&M'm/JS&Se
SC**3^ ^^LenJ&SSW?
GEORGE GRENFELL
AND THE CONGO
A HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE
CONGO INDEPENDENT STATE AND ADJOINING DISTRICTS
OF CONGOEAND
TOGETHER WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE NATIVE PEOPLES AND THEIR
LANGUAGES, THE FAUNA AND FLORA ; AND SIMILAR NOTES ON
THE CAMEROONS AND THE ISEAND OF FERNANDO PO
FOUNDED ON THE DIARIES AND RESEARCHES OF THE LATE
Rev. GEORGE GRENFELL, b.m.s., f.r.g.s.
BY
SIR HARRY JOHNSTON
G.C.M.G., K.C.B., Hon. D.Sc. Cambs.
IN TWO VOLS.
With 496 Illustrations from Photographs by the Revs. GEORGE GRENFELL and
William Forfeitt, the Baptist Missionary Society, and others
And from Drawings ry the Author
And 14 Maps by the late Rev. GEORGE GRENFELL, and also by
J. W. ADDISON, r. geo. soo, the last-named being based mainly on Gkenfell's Surveys
And on Additional Material contributed by Mr. E. TORDAY, the AUTHOR,
Mons. A. J. WAUTERS, the Publications of the CONGO STATE,
THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY,
And THE BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY
VOL. I
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON & COMPANY
1910
Printed in Great Britain
PREFATORY REMARKS,
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS,
AND DEDICATION
I WAS specially invited to write George Grenfell and the Congo by
Mr. Alfred Henry Baynes, for some twenty-five years Secretary
of the Baptist Missionary Society. Mr. Baynes viewed with
regret the possibility of the ethnographical and geographical in-
formation collected by so many deceased members of the Baptist
Mission being lost sight of whilst it might form a valuable contribution
to our knowledge of West Central Africa.
In accomplishing my task — one of unusual difficulty— I have
received the most valuable assistance from the Rev. Lawson Forfeitt,
B.M.S. Secretary on the Congo, and for many years a colleague
and close personal friend of George Grenfell. Besides his individual
researches he has opened up many avenues of information among his
colleagues and friends, and has thus brought to light new languages
and new aspects of Congo problems. Next in importance to Mr.
Forfeitt's help has been that of Mr. Emil Torday, a Hungarian
traveller well known for his :emarkable ethnographical collections and
reports on the south-western section of the Congo basin. I cannot
speak too appreciatively of Mr. Torday 's assistance, which has been
rendered not only out of admiration for Grenfell's work as an explorer,
but also with a desire to enable me to place before the world as large
a collection as possible of precise information regarding native
habits and customs on the Congo. Mr. Torday was able repeatedly to
elucidate and amplify such of Grenfell's notes as might otherwise have
remained obscure or inexplicable. Grenfell of course inserted these
notes merely as a reminder to himself some day to deal with the
question. Or he would sum up the heads of a subject in a few words,
which would have remained almost unmeaning (unless he had lived to
translate them) without the additional evidence that Mr. Torday was
able to place at my disposal.
Among the many cases and boxes containing Grenfell's manuscripts
were stores of notes in handwriting and typewriting, the exact origin
VI
PREFATORY REMARKS
of which was not always clear. Sometimes they have been identified
as original researches on the part of Grenfell or his colleagues. In
a few cases they were copied (I should think) from the missionary
magazines of other societies, or from scientific publications in Belgium
or Germany. Wherever such extracts could be defined as not being
in any way connected with Gren fell's work, and as having received
mmmm iiysipa- j-aist- m ■■; maamniimw
{Photo by J. Russell and Sons from " The Baptist Magazine" by
permission of the Rev. James Stuart, Editor.}
2. THE REV. LAWSON FORFEIT!
For many years the Baptist Missionary Society's Secretary on the Congo,
and the official representative of the Mission to the Congo State
Government.
already independent publication, I have left them unused, or have
merely referred to their existence. But where there was no means of
identification, and a doubt existed as to whether the passage might not
after all be a note compiled by Grenfell or one of his colleagues which
had not already appeared in print, I have made use of this information.
I have also inserted a very few photographs collected by Grenfell which
may not have been taken either by himself or any of his colleagues,
PREFATORY REMARKS vii
and which are likewise without means of identification, though illus-
trating points in which he was interested.
As it was desirable to treat my subject widely, I have sought help
in several directions for the purpose of adding to the general stock of
information and illustrations collected by the Baptist Mission relative
to the Congo, Cameroons, and Fernando P6. Mr. G. A. Boulenger of
the British Museum has kindly enabled me to have drawings or photo-
graphs made of Congo fish (collected by Baptist missionaries and
others) which are typical of the fauna of the Congo basin or are new
to science and specially associated with the collecting work of George
Grenfell and the Rev. J. H. Weeks. The Baptist Missionary Society
has of course placed entirely at my disposal its remarkable ethno-
graphical collection. Mr. T. Athol Joyce of the British Museum
has assisted both Mr. Torday and myself not only with information
and advice, but in selecting for illustration objects of interest in the
collections of the British Museum, mostly those contributed by Baptist
missionaries. Baron Maurice de Rothschild and M. Trouessart (of
the Natural History Museum, Paris) have supplied photographs and in-
formation concerning the Forest Pig and the Okapi. Mr. R. H. Burne,
Assistant Curator of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and
the authorities of that College, together with Professor D. J. Cunning-
ham of Edinburgh University, have placed at my disposal interesting
photographs of Congo skulls. Mr. S. P. Verner (formerly of the Ameri-
can Presbyterian Congo Mission) and the Rev. M. Martin, still of that
mission, have enlightened me on various points concerning the Kasai
region. I have also received information in matters of botany and
zoology from Colonel D. Prain and Dr. Otto Stapf of Kew Gardens,
from Mr. R. I. Pocock of the Zoological Society, and from Messrs.
E. E. Austen and Oldfield Thomas of the British Museum. Viscount
Mountmorres has permitted me to quote from his Reports on the Congo
State, and Mr. E. D. Morel has forwarded to me information on many
subjects. Mr. George Babington Michell, H.B.M. Consul at Paris and
until recently a Vice-Consul on the Congo, has placed his vocabularies
of Congo languages at my disposal. Mr. G. L. Bates has done the
same in regard to the Fafi dialects.
I have in addition to acknowledge the co-operation of Mr.
Joseph Hawkes and Miss Hawkes of Birmingham (connections of
the late Mr. Grenfell), who have contributed several photographs and
notes to this book. Mr. Lewis (Birmingham) has kindly supplied the
frontispiece of the first volume. I am considerably indebted to the
Rev. William Forfeitt of Bopoto for his beautiful pictures of Congo
people and scenery, and for his important additions to our knowledge
of Congo languages. The Rev. Thomas Lewis of Western Congo-
viii PREFATORY REMARKS
land, has lent several illustrations. Mrs. W. H. Stapleton — herself a
worker for many years in the Congo field — has allowed me the fullest
access to her husband's unpublished philological work dealing with
the languages of the Upper Congo ; the Rev. Theos. Parr, M.A.,
of Bolton, Lanes., has supplied much information concerning the
native language of Fernando P6 ; Miss Emily Saker, the daughter
of the late Alfred Saker, has rendered similar services regarding the
languages of the Cameroons ; Mrs. Grenfell has placed her ethno-
graphical collections at my disposal and has furnished the necessary
explanation of them.
I wish to tender my thanks to Dr. Scott Keltie, Secretary of the
Royal Geographical Society, for advice and assistance in many direc-
tions, and equally so to Mr. Edward Heawood, the Librarian of that
Society.
Mr. J. W. Addison's work on the maps has been much more than
the execution of a commission on ordinary business lines. He has
thrown into this task an amount of research and unrecompensed labour
for which all interested in African geography should be grateful. The
maps also owe much to the writings and to information specially
furnished by the great Belgian geographer Mons. A. J. Wauters and
by M. Louis Coffin, chief engineer of the Congo Railway. I am also
indebted to the Secretariat of the Interior of the Congo Independent
State for the gift of maps and publications of the State.
I have made frequent references to the writings and researches
(published and unpublished) of the late Dr. Holman Bentley, as I feel
sure he would have wished me to do in any comprehensive survey of
the Congo. If I may seem here and there to have quoted him unduly
it has been because he and I were making use on equal terms of the
same sources of information — Grenfell's original journal and letters. As
far as possible I have left untouched the individual researches of
Dr. Bentley himself. No one who wishes to be completely acquainted
with Congo questions, scientific and ethical, can do without such works
of reference as the Dictionary and Grammar of the Kongo Language and
the two books on Congo travel which Dr. Bentley published respectively
in 1887 and 1900.
I have used a good deal of my own material in this book, have
produced drawings and photographs of my own, not hitherto published,
to illustrate the scenery of Fernando P6, the Cameroons, and the
western Congo. In a few cases, certain of these sketches appeared in
the Graphic and in my own book on the River Congo twenty to twenty-
three years ago ; but in reproducing them I have gone back to the
original drawings.
Qui s excuse, s' accuse : I trust that this rather lengthy explanation
PREFATORY REMARKS ix
may not distract the reader from the main conclusion that the greater
part of this book, in illustrations as in text, is new and original matter,
the personal work of George Grenfell, in the first place ; of Lawson
Forfeitt, Emil Torday, and myself in a secondary degree.
I would venture to dedicate this work to the Right Hon. Sir
George Taubman Goldie, p.c, k.c.m.g., President of the Royal
Geographical Society, not only as the expression of a long-standing
friendship on my part, but because George Grenfell, had he lived, would
certainly have wished to associate the publication of his studies with
the official representative of a society that he found so prompt to accord
him encouragement and recognition in his geographical research.
H. H. JOHNSTON.
Poling, May, 1908.
ERRATUM et ADDENDUM
Erratum. — On page 75, twelve lines from the bottom, owing should be read instead of
owning.
Addendum. — When some months ago the Rev. Lawson Forfeitt placed in my hands
photographs by the Rev. K. J. Pettersen (and by the deceased discoverer, the late Rev. E.
Domenjoz) of the ancient Portuguese inscriptions on the rocks or cliffs above Matadi, near
the Mpozo River, I sent examples of these photographs to an official in Lisbon connected
with the Royal Academy of Portugal, hoping that he might be able to obtain for me a correct
interpretation. Unfortunately the letter and its enclosures were despatched only a few days
before the assassination of the late King and the Crown Prince, and either never reached their
destination or were overlooked in the interruption of ordinary affairs which followed those sad
events. Since then, the Rev. Thomas Lewis, B. M.S. , submitted similar photographs to the
inspection of the Royal Geographical Society. In the opinion of the Librarian, Mr. Edward
Heawood, and in that of the veteran geographer of Africa, Mr. E. G. Ravenstein, the inscrip-
tions relate to the second expedition to the Congo, commanded by Diogo Cam or Cao in 1485.
(An allusion to this second expedition of Cam's was accidentally omitted by me in my brief
enumeration of the leading events of early Congo history on page 70. )
Mr. Heawood deciphers the inscription in illustration 32 as follows : ' ' Aqy chegaram os
navios do (next word undecipherable) Rey Dom Joam ho seg° de Portugall : D° Caao : P° Ans
P° Dacosta — (among other names to the right) — Alvaro Pirez, Pero Escolar, Joao de Santiago,
Joao Alves, Diogo Pinero, Gonzalo Alvares, Antam." [Joam or Joao is mostly abbreviated to
J°. Antam is equivalent to Antao, Anton, or Antonio. In old Portuguese the nasal termina-
tion now usually rendered by So was frequently spelt am.] This can be translated (as Mr. Hea-
wood points out) : " Here arrived the ships of the (? fleet) of the King Dom John the Second of
Portugal: Diogo Cao, Pedro Anes, Pedro da Costa, etc." [Vide The Geographical Journal,
June 1908, pp. 590 and 615.]
The Rev. Thomas Lewis points out in his paper on "The Old Kingdom of Kongo " (The
Geographical Journal, June 1908) that the Portuguese mariners of Diogo Cam's expedition in
1485 must have displayed extraordinary daring, resolution, and skill in steering, rowing, warp-
ing, hauling their ship past the whirlpools of Hell's Cauldron, the terrific force of the current,
and the dangerous rocks above Matadi, to the mouth of the Mpozo River, where they found
anchorage in a quiet reach of water, and whence they climbed the rocks to inscribe a record of
their heroic feat — a record which was to remain entirely overlooked in geographical circles until
1908, though.it was discovered about 1900 by the late Mr. E. Domenjoz, a Swiss missionary in
the service of the (English) Congo-Balolo Mission. A portrait of Mr. Domenjoz is given on
p. 824.
H. H. J.
ORTHOGRAPHY
THE spelling of African names in this work is practically that in use by the Royal Geo-
graphical Society, the Indian Government, etc. The consonants have mostly their
English value, the vowels are as in German or Italian. No consonant is doubled unless
it is doubly pronounced. N is pronounced like ng in "ring," "ringing." O is pronounced
like o in " bone " ; o like o in "store " ; unaccented o as in " not. "
For the accurate transcription of languages, I prefer to use the system of Lepsius, with very
slight modern modifications. This will be found duly explained in the chapter dealing with the
Languages of the Congo and Cameroons. It does not differ materially from the orthography
used for Geographical names. With regard to .my rendering of the native names of Rivers,
Lakes, Mountains, Towns, Chiefs, and Tribes, I have naturally aimed at a correct transcrip-
tion of the native pronunciation. Wherever this could not be ascertained by reference to the
notes of Grenfell, Bentley (whom I have mostly followed, because I know his hearing of native
speech to have been very accurate), or by my own personal experience in western, north-eastern,
or south-eastern Congoland, I have accepted the official version of the Congo State. The last-
named does not generally differ from the transliteration of Grenfell and Bentley, and is usually
much more correct (as regards correspondence with native pronunciation and etymology) than
the somewhat haphazard spelling adopted by most French authorities (excepting Mons.
A. Chevalier). But in some cases I find myself in disaccord with the Congolese cartographers,
as for example over the name Mubangi. Not only do Grenfell and all the Baptist missionaries
write this word "Mubangi," but when in Uganda or north-east Congoland I have discussed
the point with Bangala soldiers, etc., from the lower Mubangi they pronounced thus the name
of that great river in its lowermost course. Nowhere have I heard the rendering " Ubanghi."
This, like not a few official titles of places in the Congo basin, is due to a Swahili corruption.
Stanley and most of the earlier pioneers knew no other African speech than Swahili, and heard
all native place names through Swahili ears, an annoying thing to those who take an interest in
the correct rendering of the Bantu languages. " Ubangi," " Ubanghi," " Mbangi," have no
meaning to a native, any more than "Upoto" for Bopoto.
There is another point that requires some explanation. The reader may notice that place
or river names are sometimes written with an /, sometimes with an r, and at others with a d,
(Thus we have Dua, Rua, Lua ; Mbidizi or Mbirizi ; Rubi and Lubi ; Sankulu and (less correctly)
Sankuru ; Irebu and Ilebo.) This is due to the inability of most Bantu negroes to distinguish
between d, r, and / in their pronunciation. At the same time, among the Bantu of the Congo
it must be admitted that r is the least common form of these linguals. On the other hand, r
predominates in some of the dialects of South-West Africa, and especially in the mouths of the
Zanzibari negroes or Arabs. Consequently many Geographical names are established by long
use with an "x" pronunciation which is quite foreign to local speech. As the point matters less
than the bother of changing established orthography, I have often left these words unaltered
and have preferred to go on using " Sankuru" instead of changing it to Sankulu.
There is occasional variation in this book and its maps as to the title of the Congo State.
This is usually given in its full correct form as the "Congo Independent State." But in some
places — for the sake of brevity — " Congo State," and in others — from oversight — " Congo Free
State" is used. Who is responsible for this last incorrect rendering of the official title I do not
know, but it has obtained such a hold in our speech that it is difficult to eradicate it.
H. H. J.
CONTENTS OF VOL. I
CHAPTER I ™ge
George Grenfell . . . . . . . . i
CHAPTER II
Fernando P6 : 1840-58 . . . . . . . 18
CHAPTER III
The Cameroons : 1845-87 . . . . . . 27
CHAPTER IV
Modern Missionary Pioneers in Congoland . . . . 63
CHAPTER V
The Modern History of the Congo . . . . . 69
CHAPTER VI
San Salvador and Stanley Pool . . . . . 85
CHAPTER VII
Grenfell's First Journey Beyond Stanley Pool . . . 97
CHAPTER VIII
The Discovery of the Mubangi ..... 10S
CHAPTER IX
The Rivers of Central Congoland . . . . . 135
CHAPTER X
Times of Uncertainty . . . . . . . 171
CHAPTER XI
The Lunda Expedition . . . . . . . 187
xii CONTENTS
CHAPTER XII pack
Missionary Vicissitudes . . . . . . . 221
CHAPTER XIII
The River Congo ........ 265
CHAPTER XIV
The Northern Tributaries ...... 326
CHAPTER XV
The Journey to the Undiscovered Bourne . . . . 372
CHAPTER XVI
Congoland Before the White Man Ruled . . . . 382
CHAPTER XVII
History of the Congo State : I. Its Foundation . . . 408
CHAPTER XVIII
History ok the Congo State: II. The Arab War . . 424
CHAPTER XIX
History of the Congo State: III. Advance to the Nile and
Later Developments . . . . . 435
CHAPTER XX
The Misdeeds, Mistakes, and Achievements of the Congo State 445
Appendix I. concessionnaire companies in the basin of the congo 476
,, II. extracts from private letters written by grenfell
IN 1902 AND 1903 . . . . . 480
,, III. VISCOUNT MOUNT MORRES AND THE CONGO INDEPENDENT
STATE ....... 484
„ IV. MONS. LOUIS GOFFIN AND THE SUBJECT OF FORCED LABOUR 486
,, V. RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC WORK, ETC., ACCOMPLISHED BY THE
CONGO STATE . . . . . . 491
„ VI. WATERWAYS AND RAILWAYS ..... 493
,, VII. ARMY SERVICE AS A MEANS OF EDUCATION . . . 494
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
George Grenfell
2. The Rev. Lawson Forfeitt. For many
years the Baptist Missionary Society's
Secretary on the Congo, and the official
representative of the Mission to the
Congo State Government .
3. Grenfell in 1878, starting with first B.M.S.
mission to San Salvador, kingdom of
Kongo . . ...
4. Specimen page of Grenfell's notes on
journey up the Lulongo-Maringa in 1885 :
distances in hours
5. Bolobo station ; Grenfell's home on the
Upper Congo for sixteen years
6. A missionary's house at Bolengi, Upper
Congo . . ...
7. Brick-making at Bopoto, an element in
" sound material civilization "
8. Native blacksmiths trained at the Baptist
Mission on the Upper Congo
9. B. M. S.S. Peace (on the northern Congo
near Stanley Falls). The Peace was
the steamer in which Grenfell made his
principal exploring journeys
10. The Rev. John Clarke, a pioneer African
philologist and missionary in Fernando
P6 . . ...
1 1. Clarence (or Santa Isabel) Peak, Fernando
P6 — about 10,000 feet in altitude .
1 2. A Bube or indigenous native of Fernando P6
13. The Cameroons Mountains seen from near
Fernando P6 . . . .
14. A typical Duala gentleman of the olden
time (about 1874) — Shark Dido of Dido
Town, Cameroons, son of the Chief
Dido herein referred to . .
15. Carved Duala stool belonging to a chief .
16. The Cameroons Mountains and the loca-
tion of Ambas Bay settlement of Victoria :
seen from Mondole Island .
17
19.
20.
SOURCE PAGE
From a photograph by Mr. Thomas
Lewis, of Birmingham Frontispiece
Alfred Saker : from a photograph taken
about 1873 . ...
18. The Manenguba Mountains, north-west of
Cameroons River, as observed by the
Author in 1886 . ...
The Little Cameroons Peak .
Tree-ferns on the Cameroons Mountain (the
pass named by Burton " Fern Gate ") .
From a photograph lent by Rev.
James Stuart . vi
Photograph taken by T. J. Comber 3
Photograph by Grenfell
Photograph by Baptist Mission
7
9
11
Photograph by Rev. William Forfeitt 13
Photograph by Grenfell . .15
. 16
19
From a sketch by Sir Harry Johnston 21
25
,, ,, ,, 28
Photograph lent by Miss Emily Saker 29
Photograph lent by Rev. Lawson
Forfeitt . . . . 31
From a painting by Sir Harry John-
ston . . 39
42
Sketch by Sir Harry Johnston . . 44
!> !> !1 ■ • 45
47
XIV
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
NO. TITLE
21. Mount Victoria, the High Peak of the
Cameroons, about 13,500 feet in altitude.
In the foreground is a great " stream "
of lava and scoria?
22. Bell Town Beach, Duala, Cameroons
River, 1886 . ...
23. King "Bell" of Cameroons : taken about
1874 . . . . .
24. Lissochilus giganteus orchids, ten to fifteen
feet high, growing on the Cameroons
River . . ...
25. The Duala shore (" Bell Town beach") in
1907 . . . . .
26. The remaining Baptist mission station at
Sopo, in the Cameroons (under native
missionaries) . ...
27. The highest summit of the Cameroons
(sketched by the present writer in 1886)
28. Baobab tree at San Salvador, showing
initials of Lieut. Grandy, 1873, and of
Comber and Grenfell carved in 1878
29. Tungwa, reached by Grenfell and Comber
in 1878. (Here Comber was wounded
by a bullet in 1880)
30. Native musicians at Tungwa, 1878 .
31. Portuguese inscription on rocks above
Matadi, near Mpozo River: inscribed by
Diogo Cam's Second Expedition in 1485
32. Principal inscription of Diogo Cam's
Second Expedition of 1485 (rocks near
Matadi and Mpozo River), giving names
of chief persons in expedition
33. Ruins of the convent, San Salvador, built
by the Portuguese in the sixteenth
century . . ...
34. A map of the Congo regions published at
Amsterdam in 1733 in the Atlas of
Guillaume de l'lsle (Publishers, Jan
Covens and Corneille Mortier). This
represents the utmost information ever
given to the world by the Portuguese,
Italian, French, and Flemish explorers
(mainly missionaries) down to the middle
of the eighteenth century .
35. Tree under which Livingstone's heart was
buried at the village of Chitambo .
36. Image of Christ found at San Salvador,
used as a fetish. Some two or three
hundred years old
37. Ruins of chancel arch of ancient Portu-
guese cathedral at San Salvador .
38. A group of Congo pioneers at Musuko —
(left to right) Hartland, Crudgington,
Comber, Mr. ■ — — — , a trader, Mr.
Greshoff (the agent of the Dutch house),
Mrs. Grenfell, and Holman Bentley
39. The Mbidizi or Mbirizi River below the
Arthington Falls . ...
40. The shore of Leopoldville, in 1883. Sketch
by the author . ...
Sketch by Sir Harry Johnston . . 49
>> »» >» • 53
Photograph lent by Miss Emily Saker 56
Sketch by Sir Harry Johnston . . 57
Photograph lent by the Basel Mission 59
,1 », ,, 60
From sketch by Sir Harry Johnston 61
Photograph by Rev. H. Ross Phillips 64
Photograph by Grenfell
■ 65
• 67
Photograph by Rev. K. J. Pettersen 71
Photograph by Grenfell
72
73
• 79
Photograph by Captain Poulett
Weatherley . . . . 81
Photograph supplied by the Baptist
Mission from object in their col-
lections . . . . 86
Photograph by Grenfell . . 88
„ • • 89
Photograph by Rev. Thomas Lewis 92
Sketch by Sir Harry Johnston . . 93
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
xv
NO. TITLE
41. After a journey in B. M.S.S. Peace, Paul
Crampel, the famous French explorer,
who made important discoveries in the
basin of the Sanga, dedicated his map
of the Cameroons - Congo hinterland
to Grenfell. Crampel was assisted by
Grenfell to ascend the Mubangi. He
was the first explorer to penetrate from
the Congo basin to that of Lake Chad,
and was killed in Baghirmi in 1890
42. The wooded banks of the Congo between
Stanley Pool and the Kwa junction,
rising to about 800 feet above stream-
level . . ...
43. The rocky points or reefs which stretch
out into the Congo or Kasai, and often
cause steamers to come to grief .
44. Lone Island, where the Congo broadens,
near Chumbiri . ...
45. A B.M.S. house at Lukolela : station
founded by Grenfell in 1885
46. Bapulula, a pilot on the Peace steamer (a
Mongata man, recruited after Grenfell's
first voyage) . ...
47. An Ngumba house at Bolobo, belonging to
Chief Ibaka (showing enemies' skulls on
roof) . . ...
48. Necklace of human eeth from the northern
Congo . . ...
49. A fleet of canoe dwellings at Isangi, mouth
of Lomami River, 1891. (In the days of
the early Arab troubles many of the
Lomami people took to living 1 in canoes,
a practice formerly adopted for trading
purposes) . ...
50. A pot from the upper Mubangi — red and
blue-grey . ...
51. Grenfell's " Calamus " palm, in two stages
of growth. (This climbing palm is really
Ancistrophyllum secundiflorum. It is
found all over the Congo basin, growing
to heights of two and three hundred feet)
52. Scene typical of flood-time on the river,
water up to the houses
53. Young form of Ancistrophyllum. secundi-
florum climbing palm. (Beginning like
this, the Ancistrophyllum gradually de-
velops barbed hooks and segmented
fronds, and scrambles to the top of the
highest trees) . ...
54 The red fruits and seed of the climbing
Ancistrophyllum palm. The seeds are
sometimes strung together as necklaces.
The fruit is slightly sweet, and edible .
55. (1) Batwa bow, arrows, and quiver from
the Juapa region. (2) A " wooden club "
or cleaver from the upper Juapa .
56. German pioneers of Congo exploration
photographed at Stanley Pool — (begin-
ning- on left, Von Francois, Wissmann,
Wolf, and Hans Miiller)
57. A group of Baluba natives (von Wiss-
mann's expedition)
• 99
Sketch by Sir Harry Johnston . 103
Photograph by Grenfell
>> >j
1 > n
112
"3
119
Photograph from Grenfell's specimen 122
Photograph by William Forfeitt . 126
133
Drawing- by Sir Harry Johnston . 136
Photograph by William Forfeitt . 137
Drawing by Sir Harry Johnston . 141
Photograph by Grenfell
142
Photograph by Baptist Mission . 144
>» jj
• 147
. 148
XVI
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
NO. TITLE
58. The lower Kwango River
59. The Sankuru River near Lusambo. Fish
traps and fish weirs in the foreground .
60. Kasai cloth of raised pile. Made from
raphia "bast" or fibre (the substance
of the leaflets of the young fronds)
61. A typical Muyanzi (a sawyer of the
Mission at Bolobo). 1 he Bayanzi or
Babangi range from the lower Kasai to
the main Congo and the Mubangi con-
fluence . . ...
62. (1) Native fetish from the southern part of
the cataract region of the Congo. The
strings tied round the neck are offerings
for benefits received. (2) Image of St.
Christopher and the Infant Christ, found
in the San Salvador district — possibly
some two or three hundred years old.
Has been used as a fetish. Similar types
to (1) and (2) are found among the Kioko
and Bashilange . ...
63. Bakuba axes of wrought iron, from the
Kasai-Sankuru. These are carried be-
fore a chief as a sign of authority
(Grenfell). The Bakuba and Baluba
are great iron-workers
64. A specimen of Luba pottery : a water-
cooler from Luluabourg (Lulua River) .
65. Cloth of raised pile from the Bakuba
country (Sankuru River)
66. Congo pioneers — (beginning on left, lower
rank) Dr. A. Sims, Grenfell, Cap-
tain Deane ; (right hand, upper rank)
Michael Richards, A. Billington, J. G.
Brown . . ...
67. The " Upside-down fish " — Eutropius lati-
ceps, from Lake Leopold II ; where it
sometimes grows to a length of six feet.
It is considered very good eating by the
natives . . ...
68. Head of hippopotamus shot by Grenfell .
69. Major Barttelot and a section of the Emin
Pasha expedition off Lukolela, Upper
Congo . . ...
70. Rev. W. Holman Bentley, b.ms. , D.D.
Glasgow ; author of Kongo Dictionary
and Grammar . ...
71. Cloth of raised pile from Ntomba district
72. Prepared manioc roots (k-wanga), sugar-
cane, etc. A school feast on the Upper
Congo . . ...
73. Citharinus congicus, a fish much eaten by
the natives of Stanley Pool and the Upper
Congo. [This species, about 12 to 15
inches long, is smoked, and becomes an
important article in native commerce.]
Its name, and that of other Citharini,
is Loboko among the Bayanzi
74. Herbert Ward and his section of the Emin
Pasha relief expedition on the Congo in
canoes . , , , ,
SOURCE
Photograph by Grenfell
Photograph by E. Torday
PAGE
• >5 2
•54
Photograph by Grenfell
Photograph by Torday
■57
'59
Photograph by Baptist Mission . 161
162
163
164
Photograph by Rev. R. D. Darby. 166
Photograph lent by Mr. G. A.
Boulenger, British Museum . 168
Photograph by Grenfell . . 169
Photograph lent by Baptist Mission 1 73
Photograph by Baptist Mission . 175
Photograph by William Forfeitt . 177
Drawn from specimen in British
Museum . . . . 178
Photograph by Grenfell
1 80
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
NO. TITLE
75. Mfutila, the late King of Kongo ; suc-
ceeded his father at San Salvador in 1892
76. Chiefs and noblemen at San Salvador,
Kingdom of Kongo
77. A group of Baptist missionaries (including
Mr. and Mrs. Grenfell) at the launching
of the Goodwill . ...
78. Captain Gorin riding an ox on the Lunda
Expedition . ...
79. Facsimile of King Leopold's commission
to the Rev. George Grenfell to serve as
plenipotentiary on the Frontier Delimita-
tion Commission for the determination
of the frontier between Portugal and the
Congo State . ...
80. M. Froment on the Lunda expedition
81. Hammock-travelling on the Lunda expedi-
tion . . ...
82. The Kwango River seen from the Fort of
Popokabaka . ...
83. TheKiamvo, Mwene-Puto-Kasongo(centre
figure) ; from a photograph taken by
Pere Butaye in 1906
84. Capt. Drag Lehrmann
85. Kwango River from beach near Popokabaka
86. Grenfell's tent on Lunda expedition .
87. A metallophone from the Kongo-Kwango
region, called Mbiti by the natives
88. In the Berthon boat on the Kwango River,
Lunda expedition
89. Franz Josef Falls of the Kwango River,
discovered by the Austrian explorer von
Mechow, 1880 . . . .
90. Baholo people, upper Kwango
91. Rapids of the Kwango
92. Major and Mme. Sarmento, Lunda expedi-
tion . . ...
93. The members of the Lunda Delimitation
Commission ; also Mme. Sarmento and
Mrs. Grenfell . ...
94. Hills bordering Wamba Valley
95. Crossing Kwilu River, Lunda expedition .
96. Submerged bridge, Kwilu River
97. Hungry porters on the Lunda expedition
returning to Angola
98. Grenfell riding an ox, Lunda expedition .
99. Grenfell's native attendants on the Lunda
expedition . ...
100. The sketch survey of the Portuguese-
Congo boundary, etc., signed by the
three Commissioners
101. The grave of Rev. F. R. Oram at Bopoto,
Northern Congo
102. Rev. Albert Wherrett's grave at Yakusu,
Stanley Falls . ...
103. Rev. T. J. Comber at Arthington .
104. Rev. J. Pinnock and his family. (Mr.
Pinnock is a West Indian, and son of
the Rev. J. Pinnock, a pioneer in the
Cameroons. Mr. Pinnock himself served
for some years in the Cameroons)
1.— b
SOURCE
Photograph by Grenfell
XV11
PAGE
. 181
. 182
Photographed by Grenfell's camera 183
Photograph by Grenfell . .187
189
190
191
193
»9S
196
198
199
201
203
Photograph lent by Pere Butaye
Photograph by Grenfell
204
205
206
209
210
211
212
213
216
217
219
. To face page 220
Photo by William Forfeitt . .221
»> »>
Photograph by Grenfell
222
223
225
XV111
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
NO. TITLE
105. The station of New Underhill on the Lower
Congo, at the commencement of the
cataract region . ...
106. A house of the B.M.S. at Lukolela,
Western Equatorial Cong-o
107. A framework made by the natives of the
western Congo for protecting the face
against mosquitoes and sand-flies. A
light cloth is placed over the wicker-
work mask . ...
108. Leopard killed on Upper Congo by Rev.
W. H. Stapleton. (Mr. Stapleton is in
left-hand corner of the picture)
109. Locust devouring a mouse .
no. A flash of lightning on the Upper Congo
in. The Mission school at Bolobo
112. Missionary going on tour of inspection
in house-boat, Upper Congo
113. Patience Grenfell and her school-children
at Yakusu . ...
114. Crinum lilies of the Upper Congo .
115. Camoensia maxima
116. Protopterus dottoi, the Lung-fish of. the
Upper Congo . ...
117. The Mission laundry man, Bopoto .
118. A sewing class at Bopoto
119. Mrs. Grenfell's sewing class, Bolobo
1 20. " How they look when they first come to
the Mission " . . . .
121. " After six months "
122. The garden of a B.M.S. station, Upper
Congo . . ...
123. Brick-makers at B.M.S. station, Yakusu
124. Portuguese Roman Catholic Mission sta-
tion, Malanje, Portuguese Congo
125. Scholars.at a Portuguese Roman Catholic
Mission station, Portuguese Congo
126. Man and woman of the Ngombe tribe,
adherents of the Baptist Mission, Bo-
poto . . ...
127. Natives streaming down to welcome the
Mission steamer at Yakusu, Upper
Congo . . ...
128. The Peace damaged in a storm
129. The boys who helped to put the Peace
right again . ...
130. The Goodwill steamer at Bolobo
131. Bungudi, the Mission engineer, and his
wife (Bungudi was a Bateke boy trained
by Grenfell) . ...
132. Lokongi, a Mission teacher at Bolobo .
133. Grenfell, Lawson Forfeitt, Mr. and Mrs.
Lewis at San Salvador, 1893
134. Map of Banana Point, at the north side
of the Congo mouth
135. Banana Point, at the mouth of the Congo
136. The estuarine Congo near its mouth
137. Skin of python, 25 ft. long, 2 ft. 7 in. broad
when dry, killed at Ngangila, near
Matadi. . ...
Photograph by Rev. William Forfeitt 227
Photograph by Grenfell . . 229
Photograph by Baptist Mission
Photograph by Grenfell
Photograph lent by Lawson Forfeitt
Photograph by William Forfeitt
Photograph by Grenfell
Photograph by William Forfeitt
Photograph by Grenfell
Photo by William Forfeitt
Sketch by Sir Harry Johnston
Photo lent by Mr. G. A. Boulenger
Photo by William Forfeitt
Photograph by Grenfell
,, j, >,
j, ,) >>
Photo by William Forfeitt
>> ,, »»
Photograph by Grenfell
,, ,, )»
Photo by William Forfeitt
Photograph by Grenfell
Photograph by Lewis's camera
Photograph by Grenfell
230
231
233
234
235
237
239
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
248
249
250
251
252
253
255
257
258
259
261
263
265
266
267
From a picture by Sir Harry Johnston 268
Photograph by William Forfeitt . 269
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
NO. TITLE
138. Looking 1 down the Congo towards Boma,
from Underhill . ...
139. Old Underhill (Tunduwa) and Hell's Caul-
dron . . ...
140. Looking down the Congo from Vivi
westwards . ...
141. A steamer ascending the Lower Congo
heading for the port of Matadi .
142. The River Congo above Vivi, near (i.e.
below) the first Fall
143. General view of the Yalala Falls .
144. Falls of Congo at Isangila : sketch by
the Author . ...
145. A Congo cataract : sketch by the Author
146. The site of Manyanga, central cataract
region . . ...
147. Scenery in the cataract region of the
Congo (south of the river)
148. Nzeke Rapids, the last of the Livingstone
Falls, near Vivi . ...
149. View of Congo in the cataract region
near Stanley Pool
150. An island off Kinshasa on Stanley Pool,
1883 . . ...
151. Dover Cliffs, Stanley Pool .
152. Last relics of the ancient Congo plateau
— hills lingering on the western bank
of the Upper Congo, near Bolobo
153. Borassus palms on the Upper Congo
154. View on the Upper Congo, near Bopoto,
to show islands . ...
155. View down the Congo at Bopoto from a
mission house . ...
156. On the banks of the Congo near Bwemba
157. The banks of the Congo at Yalemba,
east of the Aruwimi confluence .
158. Borassus palms on an island of the
Upper Congo . ...
159. The snags that wreck the steamers
160. The Mission steamer Goodwillhovi on at
Yakusu . ...
161. The village of Lisala, near Bopoto .
162. The Chopo Falls, near the Lindi confluence
163. Off Yakusu beach . ...
164. A corner of Stanley Falls
165. The railway line along the Lualaba-Congo
near Ponthierville, opposite the mouth
of the Lilu River
166. Saw-mills on the railway between Stanley
Falls and Ponthierville
167. A train on the railway from Stanley Falls
to Ponthierville . ...
168. A Congo State station between Stanley
Falls and Ponthierville
169. Lualaba-Congo above Stanley Falls
1 70. Lualaba-Congo in the vicinity of Nyangwe
171. A state canoe on the Lualaba-Congo,
between Ponthierville and Nyangwe .
SOURCE
Photograph by Grenfell
,» > » >t •
Sketch by Sir Harry Johnston
Photograph by William Forfeitt
XIX
PAGE
. 270
272
• 273
• 275
Photograph by Rev. K. J. Pettersen 276
Photograph by Commander Purey-
Cust, R.N.
Sketch by Sir Harry Johnston
277
278
279
280
Photograph by Rev. K. J. Pettersen 281
,, ,. ,, », 282
Photo by William Forfeitt
Sketch by Sir Harry Johnston
Photograph by Grenfell
Sketch by Sir Harry Johnston
Photograph by William Forfeitt
Sketch by Sir Harry Johnston
Photograph by Grenfell
Photo by Wm. Forfeitt
it >> >>
Photograph by Grenfell
Photo by William Forfeitt
Photograph by Rev. J. Howell
284
285
286
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
2 95
297
301
303
305
306
307
308
309
Photograph by Grenfell
»» ») »> •
Photograph by Rev. H. Sutton-Smith 314
3"
312
3 '3
XX
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
NO. TITLE
172. On Lake Bangweulu
173- Johnston Falls, Luapula River
174. Female of the Red Forest Buffalo (Bos
coffer nanus), from the forest region of
South-Central Congoland (shot on one
of Grenfell's expeditions)
175. Red River Hog from South-Central
Congoland . ...
176. An Arab trader in North-East Congoland
(originally from Zanzibar)
177. A wooden whistle from the west Tangan-
yika coast . ...
178. Eutropius grenfetti, a fish of the Upper
Congo discovered by Grenfell. (This
is a much smaller form than the extra-
ordinary E. laticeps)
179. The post of Avakubi, looking down the
Aruwimi River, across the island in
front of the station. (It was near
Avakubi that Grenfell wished to found
a station) . ...
180. Rev. W. H. Stapleton's mission house
at Sargent Station, Yakusu
18 r. A chapel built by native Mission boys
182. Two Bambute Pygmies, Azimbamboli
and Abumbuku . ...
183. The village of the Banalya colony of
time-expired soldiers of the Congo
State . . ...
184. Aruwimi River above the lowest rapids .
185. Pango rapids of Aruwimi .
186. A village of the Bwela country behind
Bopoto. . ...
187. A village of the interior behind Bopoto.
(Note ant-hill in the background with
man standing on top)
188. The Bongo or Broad-horned Tragelaph
(from a photograph of a specimen
killed on the north-eastern Congo). The
brightly contrasted red and white striped
skin of this splendid beast is much in
favour amongst the natives of the
Forest region for bandoliers, girdles,
etc., vieing in their favour with that of
the Okapi . ...
189. The finest specimen extant of a male
Okapi, set up in the Paris Natural
History Museum : from the neighbour-
hood of Avakubi
190. An adult male of the black Forest Pig
(Hylochaerus) of North-East Congoland
and Equatorial East Africa : from one
of the specimens obtained by Baron
Maurice de Rothschild
191. A chimpanzi from the Bateke country
north of Stanley Pool : photograph by
Grenfell at Brazzaville
SOURCE PAGE
Photograph by Captain Poulett
Weatherley . . -315
„ „ „ 3 l6
Photograph by Grenfell . . 320
„ ,, ■ 321
.. .. • 322
From a specimen in the Tervueren
Museum . ... 323
Photographed from specimen in
British Museum . . . 324
Photograph by Grenfell
Photograph by William Forfeitt
327
3 2 9
33i
332
• 334
• 335
■ 336
■ 338
339
34 1
Photograph lent by M. Trouessart,
Natural History Museum, Paris. 342
Photograph lent by Baron Maurice
de Rothschild . . . 343
Photograph by Grenfell
345
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
xxi
NO. TITLE
192. Gnathonemus ibis, a fish of the Mubangi
River . . ...
193. A thief s weapon from Banalya, Aruwimi :
used for stealing goats, to simulate
a leopard's claws, and sometimes a
woman's breast is torn off by this as a
punishment . ...
194. Typical Forest negroes of the Aruwimi
(one of them a Mission boy)
195. Basoko people . ...
196. A native chief from the Bwela district
behind Bopoto and his little son (a
scholar at the Mission school). Note:
Chief is wearing a bandolier of the
Bongo Tragelaph skin .
197. Examples of the Mongwandi tribe from
the upper Mongala River. (The Mong-
wandi are allied to the Sango of the
Mubangi) . ...
198. A tom-tom drum from the Baloi country,
lower Mubangi . ...
199. Chrysichthys ornatus, a fish of the Mu-
bangi and northern Congo : collected by
Rev. J. H. Weeks, B.M.S.
200. A harp from the Sango people of Yakoma,
on the upper Mubangi . . .
201. Head of a male black Forest Pig (Hylo-
chosrus) . ...
202. Small twin receptacle from the lower
Mubangi ; black, varnished with copal
203. A photograph of George Grenfell, taken
January 1906, six months before his
death . . ...
204. The house at Yalemba where Grenfell
lived prior to his death
205. Grenfell's grave at Basoko .
206. An Arab camp, Lomami River, where the
incidents referred to by Grenfell (on
p. 375) occurred . ...
207. Rubber victims. Natives brought to the
Baptist Mission for treatment after
outrages by agents of concessionnaire
companies . ...
208. Grenfell's signature
209. The surroundings of Grenfell's house at
Bolobo . . ...
210. Bolobo chiefs Mungulu and Mukoko
211. Specimen of page from Grenfell's diary
written in pencil . ...
212. Ibaka, the principal chief of Bolobo
in the 'eighties of the last century :
sketched by Sir Harry Johnston in
1883 . . ...
213. Ngoie, a chief of Bolobo (1894), much
referred to in Grenfell's diaries (see
pp. 388-9) . ...
214. B.M.S. Mission church at Bolobo .
215. Baptist Mission church, San Salvador .
SOURCE
Photograph lent by Mr. G. A.
Boulenger . ... 349
Photograph by the Baptist Mission 351
Photograph by Grenfell . . 353
»» n ti • * 355
»i »> »> • • 357
Photograph by William Forfeitt . 360
Photograph lent by Mr. Torday . 361
Photograph lent by Mr. G. A.
Boulenger . ... 362
. 367
Photograph lent by Baron Maurice
de Rothschild . . . 369
Photo lent by Mr. Torday
Photograph by Rev. J. Howell
Photograph by William Forfeitt
Photograph by Grenfell
Photograph by Grenfell
37'
372
373
374
375
Photograph by a Baptist Missionary 379
. . 381
• 383
• 385
• 387
■ 389
• 39°
» >> » • • 393
Photograph by Rev. Thos. Lewis . 394
Photograph by Grenfell
XX11
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
NO. TITLE
216. Henrique de Carvalho Station in Eastern
Angola : founded in 1884 to protect Port-
uguese traders with the Lunda country
217. Captain Coquilhat and Matabwiki, Chief
of Bangala [circa 1890)
218. A big canoe on the Upper Congo, of the
type that used to carry slaves from the
Lulong-o to the Mubangi .
219. Ngombe people between the north Congo
and the tributaries of the Mongala River:
much given to cannibalism until recently
220. A mask worn by members of a Baluba
brotherhood in ceremonial dances : Tor-
day Collection . ...
221. The Atlantic aspect of the beach at
Banana Point, Congo mouth. (Banana
Point, the main seaport of the Belgian
Congo, was not acquired by the State
until 1885) . ...
222. Vivi in 1882, from a sketch by Sir Harry
Johnston. (Vivi Station was founded
by Stanley in 1879 at the highest point
of navigability of the Lower Congo.
It was abandoned in favour of Matadi,
on the opposite bank, in 1886)
223. The Post Office at Boma
224. First consignment of ivory from above
Stanley Pool . ...
225. Railway Station, Matadi, looking down
river . . ...
226. Sefu, son of Tipu-Tipu, and his repre-
sentative in Congoland, with the two
Belgian officers who were subsequently
killed : photo taken by the Rev. William
Forfeitt in 1891 . ...
227. Facsimile of a sketch map by Baron
Dhanis, presented by him to Grenfell
in 1890 . . ...
228. Congo State station of Basoko, near
confluence of Aruwimi
229. Red-bronze coloured pot of the Abango-
bango people (Basoko country, Aruwimi
confluence) . ...
230. Rev. Lawson Forfeitt's house near Matadi,
Lower Congo. Glave after crossing
Africa reached a neighbouring house of
Mr. Forfeitt's and died there
231. American Baptist Mission church at
Stanley Pool . ...
232. Rubber and ivory at State depdt, Mobeka,
Upper Congo . ...
233. The Congo State station at Nouvelle
Anvers, Bangala
234. An elephant's tusk from the upper
Mubangi, pared down and pierced to
form an immense ivory flute. A good
deal of the ivory first exported from the
Congo was in this form
235. A wooding post for State steamers,
Upper Congo . ...
236. Lumps of india-rubber as brought in by
natives of the Upper Congo
Photograph by Grenfell
>> J>
>> ))
Photograph by William Forfeitt
Photograph by Torday
Photograph by Grenfell
Sketch by Sir Harry Johnston
Photograph by Grenfell
Photo by William Forfeitt
Photograph by Grenfell
t j >» >> •
Photograph by William Forfeitt
Photograph by Grenfell
>> >> >>
,, ,» >>
Photograph lent by Torday .
Photograph by Grenfell
Photo by Baptist Mission
PAGE
■ 39 6
. 400
401
404
407
410
411
414
415
418
425
428
432
434
438
439
446
449
453
454
460
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
XXlll
NO. TITLE
237. Bolumbi, a fireman on S. S. Goodwill.
A typical Bangala type
238. State landing-stage at Bomwanga, with
State soldiers drawn up in rank as
guard of honour
239. Native soldier guarding women hostages
in chains . ...
240. The "chicote" or whip made of twisted
hippo hide, which figures so much in
Congo history. It is not unlike the
ktirbash of the Sudan, but this particu-
lar form of whip and its name — chicote
— was invented by the Portuguese
slave-traders of the eighteenth century
241. An American mission station at Bolengi,
near the mouth of the Ruki-Busira
River, whence much of the information
was transmitted by Sjoblom and others
concerning the maladministration of
the Crown Domain
242. Girl pupils at the Baptist Mission, Yakusu,
northern Congo . ...
243. Matadi, from the Baptist Mission Station,
New Underhill . ...
244. The Congo State post of Bumba, northern
Congo, at the edge of the Buja territory
245 Two Bangala soldiers in the service of
the Congo State. These men are off
duty and in "mufti." The Bangala
are the best, most loyal, and most
intelligent soldiers in the State forces .
246. A street in Matadi, the most important
commercial centre on the Lower Congo,
starting-point of the Congo Railway .
247. A train on the Congo Railway
248. Railway station on the line from Matadi
to Stanley Pool . ...
249. Distichodus sexfasciatus , a fish from the
cataract Congo : collected by Baptist
missionaries . ...
SOURCE PAGE
Photograph by Grenfell . . 462
» • 4 6 3
Photograph by Baptist Mission . 464
467
Photograph by Grenfell . . 469
.. » >, • 47 2
Photograph by the Baptist Mission 474
Photograph by Grenfell . . 479
Photograph by William Forfeitt . 483
ii .. • 487
>i >> ii • 488
,i .> ,, • 489
Photograph lent by Mr. G. A.
Boulenger . ... 492
MAPS IN VOL. I
A Map of the Congo Regions published at Amsterdam in 1733, etc. . . . 79
Stanley Pool, from a survey by the Rev. Georgpe Grenfell . ... 101
Confluence of the Congo and Mubangi, from a survey by the Rev. George Grenfell
To face page 106
Stanley's general idea of the geography of the Congo basin in 1885, before the
results of Grenfell's and Wissmann's journeys were made known . . 130
Sketch Map showing the principal journeys of the Rev. George Grenfell in the Congo
region, etc. . . . . . ... 131
The Sketch-survey of the Portuguese-Congo Boundary, etc., signed by the three
Commissioners ..... To face page 220
Map of the Lower Congo, showing the Cataract Region : by J. W. Addison
To face page 270
The River Congo at its northernmost bend, from a survey by the Rev. George
Grenfell ..... To face page 290
Sketch Map to show Recent Troubles (Slave trade wars, atrocities, etc.), in connec-
tion with the Natives of Central Africa, since 1885 . ... 443
Concessions Map, showing areas of Congo State withdrawn from free commerce . 477
Sketch Map to show navigability by steamers of the Congo and its affluents . . 495
Western Equatorial Africa : by J. W. Addison . . End of Volume
GEORGE GRENFELL
AND THE CONGO
CHAPTER I
GEORGE GRENFELL
GEORGE GRENFELL, the central figure of this
book, was a Cornishman, of the same stock, it is
said, from which are descended other Grenfells who
have become celebrated as the proprietors of iron foundries
and coal mines, or as athletes and military commanders. It
is possible, however, that as the events of the last twenty-
five years recede from us into history no Grenfell will have
left a more famous name than the missionary-explorer, who was
born on the 21st of August 1849 at Trannack Mill, a house
situated on his grandfather's property in the parish of San-
creed, about four miles from Penzance in the direction of
Land's End.
Although of Cornish birth, however, Grenfell, like so
many English missionaries to Africa and Asia during the last
hundred years, was by residence and associations a man of
the Midlands : his boyhood and early manhood were passed
at Birmingham, where he was educated at King Edward's
School. When scarcely more than a youth Grenfell became
strongly attracted towards missionary work, following with
especial interest that which was being done by the Baptist
missionaries in the Cameroons.
He was apprenticed at the age of fifteen to a Birming-
ham firm (Messrs. Scholefield, Goodman, and Sons) dealing
in hardware and machinery, and this apprenticeship always
served him in good stead, having made him a practical
1. — B
2 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
mechanic, wonderfully clever at coping- with all the difficul-
ties that the machinery of a steamer can meet with in
navigating African rivers. His interest in missionary work,
however, led him to study at the Baptist College of Bristol.
At Bristol, Grenfell made the acquaintance of Alfred Saker,
a veteran in the mission field of the Cameroons, the founder,
one might say, of all that is best and most permanent in
the foreign civilization of the Cameroons people. Saker was
paying a brief visit to England in 1874. The accounts he
gave of his work decided Grenfell to return with him, and
accordingly in that year — 1874 — George Grenfell commenced
his career as an African missionary and explorer in the Duala
communities on the estuary of the Cameroons River.
In 1876 he returned to England, married his first wife (Miss
Hawkes), and made his home with her at Akwa town, on the
Cameroons River. Here, after a year's residence, his wife
died in childbirth, and Grenfell moved in 1877 to the mission
settlement of Victoria on Ambas Bay. Between 1875 and
1878 he explored a good deal of the Cameroons coast region,
with the results which are described in other chapters. He also
visited parts of the island of Fernando P6. Twice in 1878
he was [with a colleague, T. J. Comber] despatched by the
Baptist Missionary Society to explore the region of the
Lower Congo with the view of founding a chain of mission
stations which might reach eventually from the mouth of the
Congo right across Africa to the Indian Ocean. When this
first attempt to reach Stanley Pool was foiled by the hostility
of the natives, Grenfell returned to the Cameroons, and for a
short time left the service of the Mission. Whilst in the
Cameroons (1879) he married his second wife (Miss Edgerley),
who was of a West Indian family that had long been settled
either at Fernando P6 or at Ambas Bay. Invited to re-enter the
service of the Mission to carry out the scheme of Congo enter-
prise for which Mr. Robert Arthington, Sir Charles Wathen,
and others had found the preliminary expenses, Grenfell first
established himself at Musuko on the Lower Congo (in 1880)
to organize the transport to San Salvador, and then, in 1881,
returned to England to superintend the completing of the
Society's first missionary steamer on the Upper Congo — the
Peace (a gift from Robert Arthington). As soon as the plan
of this vessel had been decided on he returned to the Congo
in 1883, and from that time onwards his career as a missionary -
expiorer was never interrupted (except by occasional brief
rests in England) until his death on the 1st of July 1906
GEORGE GRENFELL
at Basoko, near the junction of the Aruwimi with the Upper
Con^o. ]
o
3. GRENFELL IN 1878, STARTING WITH THE FIRST B.M.S. MISSION TO
SAN SALVADOR, KINGDOM OF KONGO
1 For the convenience of readers I append a concise summary of Grenfell's
comings and goings to and from Africa, and the Congo in particular : —
Appointed by the B.M.S. as a missionary .
Sailed for Cameroons (with Saker)
Arrived in England for first furlough .
Second departure for Cameroons (with his first wife,
nee Hawkes, who died early in January 1878)
Left Cameroons for Congo— first visit .
Second visit to the Congo ....
Married at Victoria, Cameroons, to his second wife
(nee Edgerley)
Visited Fernando P6 (also in 1901)
Returned to Baptist Mission, Congo .
Arrived in England from Congo — first time from
Congo— second furlough from Africa
Left England for Congo ....
Arrived in England from Congo— second time from
Congo— third time from Africa
Left England for Congo ....
Arrived in England from Congo — third time from
Congo — fourth furlough from Africa
Left England for Congo ....
Commissioner for King Leopold (Lunda Expedition) .
Arrived in England from Congo— fourth time from
Congo — fifth furlough from Africa .
Left England for Congo (visiting Fernando P6 in Oct.)
Died at Basoko
Nov. 10th 1874
Dec. 19th 1874
End of 1875
Feb. 26th 1876
January-March 1878
May-October 1878
Dec. 1879
Nov. 1880
Dec. 1880
Dec. 1 88 1
Dec. 9th 1882
Feb. 1887 *
Sept. 1887
Dec. 1890
Nov. 3rd 1 891
May 1892 to June 1893
May 1900
Sept. ,1901
July i ! 1906
4 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Grenfell's appearance at various stages in his career from
1878 onwards is sufficiently illustrated by the occasional por-
traits which appear in this book. He was about five feet six
inches in height, and except in the last years of his life, when
the gradual effects of repeated fevers aged him prematurely,
was of lithe, athletic build. His characteristics have been most
fitly summed up by the Belgian geographer, A. J. Wauters : — l
"George Grenfell, who has just been struck down by death much
too soon, is one of the most noble figures in the history of the founda-
tion of the Congo Independent State. . . .
" Grenfell explored and evangelised Central Africa after the fashion
of Dr. Livingstone, whom he resembled in his medium stature, his kind,
calm demeanour, his native meekness, and his enquiring and open turn
of mind. He brought many tribes of the Upper Congo in contact with
the White man who before his coming had never appeared amongst them.
He came as a man of peace, winning the confidence of the savage natives
by his patience, tact, and cleverness, taking care not to respond by
violence to the brutish diffidence of these primitive beings. At the same
time that he opened the way for the political agents of the State he
aroused the curiosity of the natives in favour of the Europeans,
thereby facilitating the task of those that followed. He fulfilled this
mission for twenty-five years, as a pioneer, with as much humanity as
success. Therefore all honour is due to his name.
" When we consider that the conquest of new lands is so often
accompanied, in spite of all, by abuses, excesses, and by guilty practices
and doings, condemned by civilisation, it is refreshing to be able to
recall the remembrance of this good man, a missionary in the purest
sense of the word ; who succeeded, as the messenger of peace, in
irradiating the immense basin of the Congo by his itineraries and in
endowing its geography with fixed points, carefully determined by
astronomical observations."
In another part of the same article M. Wauters writes : —
" Stanley revealed the course of the Congo from Nyangwe to Boma,
Wissmann discovered the Kasai, and Wolf the Sankuru. It is to
Grenfell that we owe the earliest reconnoitring of most of the other
navigable tributaries of the Congo. During one of his first explora-
tions, commenced in October 1884, he penetrated the Mubangi, the
Mongala, the Itimbiri (Rubi), and the Lomami. In January 1885 he
ascended the Mubangi as far as the Zongo Falls. ... In the same
year he explored the Ruki and the Lulongo, accompanied by the
German Captain von Francois. In December 1886, with the German
doctor Mense as travelling companion, he explored the course of the
Kwango. . . . Finally, he completed by a reconnoitring expedition on
the Kwango (and into the Lunda countries) the cycle of great dis-
coveries which he had just made, revealing the existence of peoples
1 In an appreciative obituary notice in the Mouvement Geograpkique, 10th March
1907. M. Wauters is Editor of that journal, and also Secretary-General of the
Compagnie du Chemin de Fer du Congo.
GEORGE GRENFELL 5
established along the banks of a marvellous network of free waterways,
a network which doubles the economic value of the Congo itself. His
Lunda Expedition at the time infused greater energy and a deeper
conviction into those whose gospel was then the construction of the
Matadi Railway. . . . The most sensational of his discoveries was
that of the lower Mubangi, which gave rise to our hypothesis, 1 whereby
we identified this new river as the lower course of Schweinfurth's
Welle. . . ."
" The Congo Independent State never had a more faithful auxiliary
nor a more reliable adviser than George Grenfell, who, under all circum-
stances, gave proof of his keenest sympathy with the efforts of the
Belgians on the Congo. On many occasions the Sovereign appealed on
behalf of the State to his devotion and experience, and to the authority
he enjoyed. In 1891-1892 he accepted the difficult mission of protect-
ing the State's interests in the question of defining the boundaries
along the Congo-Portuguese frontier in Lunda. Later on, when the
first charges against the Congo State assumed concrete form in the
House of Commons, he consented to accept the office of Secretary of
the Committee for the Protection of the Natives, which was formed by
the Congo Government. But the exclusively ornamental character of
this institution soon disheartened him, and recently, after the arrival of
the Committee of Enquiry at the Congo, he took sides against the
■policy of the Independent State in regard to the natives."
Grenfell, it might be mentioned, from 1894 onwards held
an honorary position on the Upper Congo as British Pro-
consul. He was made a Chevalier of two Belgian orders (that
of Leopold and of the Lion of Africa), and by the King of
Portugal was created a Commander of the Order of Christ. In
1886 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Geo-
graphical Society. His magnificent cartographical work enabled
the Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain to publish
their great map of the Congo in sections in 1902.
All these years between 1875 ar >d 1906 he was making
copious notes in his journals in a very minute caligraphy on the
people, landscapes, geology, climate, and animals of the coun-
tries he visited ; or keeping records of high and low water, of
rainfall, temperature, etc. ; was studying languages, and record-
ing odd scraps of vocabularies (of the highest philological
interest) on half-sheets of exercise paper.
Some of Grenfell's most illuminating notes on the Congo
basin are written with a hard pencil on the edges of his rough
surveys. On a sort of exercise paper (in earlier times) he
would plot his day's journey up some river or along the coast of
a lake, and on the back of the sketch-map or on its sides would
inscribe words from native languages and notes as to the
1 Namely, that of Mr. A. J. Wauters.
6 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
animals, plants, and people met with. While it has been a
congenial task for the author of • this book to gather up all
these fragments (some of them of unique value, since they deal
with vanished phases of the Congo basin), it has been a work
often of extreme difficulty and patience. Something not far
short of one hundred note-books or survey-sheets have had to
be examined carefully, passed in review with a magnifying
glass very often. There are gaps in the series. But these are
partly filled by the valuable material concerning the Congo,
Cameroons and Fernando P6 derived from his private letters.
The author has also made use of Grenfell's official reports to
the Baptist Missionary Society, his communications to the
Royal Geographical Society, and the information he collected
for the Congo State.
It is possible that had Grenfell lived he would have gathered
together all this material himself, and have written a better
book on the Congo than that which is now placed before the
reader. But this is uncertain. Grenfell from all the notes that
survive him seems to have dedicated his life once and for all
to Africa, and never made any appeal for leisure or alluded to
any project of spending his declining life in England. I have
known not a few hard-worked missionaries, male and female, who
very legitimately kept at the back of their minds an Indian sum-
mer of their lives which was to be spent "in dear old England,"
in the sweet English country, in that best of earthly climates —
that of England — in some quiet village of healthy-faced country
people, where there were no tornadoes, no blizzards, no fevers,
no unbearable sunshine, no four months' frost, no cloud-bursts of
intolerable rain ; no noxious insects, no noisy savages, no bad
food badly cooked, and no isolation from the world's news. For
Grenfell, however, there was no such goal. Possibly his diaries
and such private letters as I have seen may not reveal all that
grew up in the man's mind ; but so far as he sketched out a
future beyond 1906 it seems to have lain in the hope that the
Congo Independent State would recede from its harsh determin-
ation to bar the progress of the Baptist Mission eastwards, and
permit Grenfell to fulfil the object for which Robert Arthington
had given and bequeathed so much money — the carrying of the
chain of British mission stations (of the Baptist or any other
denomination) right across Africa from the mouth of the Congo
to the Indian Ocean. That three hundred miles which lay
between the northernmost bend of the Congo and the western-
most post of the Church Missionary Society in Uganda, was the
gap that Grenfell yearned to bridge. This project was the sole
SiO.
yj £7 £:* •&-*, <&M far- /?., 5%. £*.*£■
X*-—^ A^ An„/C4 &&***■ . '<* £**(■£ 6V-r>^ *fTit.
M***~£. --tf~ ufo, ^cri/ &*~K, st*~rt*-/y /&cet -£*& 4 . oc
i*~t££z ^9«/Gsef *£■ TS£ ~£ciuS. _ J, #4
-^Y SteA £Ly 4-Je~ A*t~<~ ^■ j 7«-</'Aka.
4>£ COtr/uf 'rfz*e (U<&£ /j£a-c** e&vn^f
<s_
4. A SPECIMEN PAGE OF GRENFELI.S NOTES ON A JOURNEY UP THE
LUL0NG0-MAR1NGA RIVER IN 1885 : DISTANCES IN HOURS
8 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
ambition of which he was baulked in dying at the age of fifty-
seven at the mouth of that Aruwimi which he was grudgingly
permitted to ascend, but on whose banks the Congo Independent
State refused him a settlement of even a few square yards.
The Congo State whose creation and advent he had saluted
with more friendly anticipations than perhaps were accorded to
it by any other pioneer ; whom he had served gratuitously when-
ever it invoked his help, 1 and championed (with a desire for fair
play) until some of his younger colleagues almost quarrelled
with him, because it seemed to him in the 'eighties and the
early 'nineties the ideal form of government — an International
Utopia knowing no race jealousies between Briton and Belgian,
Frenchman and German, Croat and Hungarian, Swede and
Norwegian : that State used the strength which was inadequate
to put down atrocities to baulk Grenfell of the innocent accom-
plishment of his life's work, and without exaggeration he may
be said to have died a disheartened and disillusioned man.
Grenfell, as will be seen from the untouched extracts of his
diaries and letters, wrote terse, descriptive English. But he
dealt almost equally well with French, and carried on a good
deal of his correspondence with the State officials in that
language. He could speak Portuguese, but generally wrote to
the Portuguese officials in French. He accuses himself occa-
sionally of not being fluent in any of the native languages
of the Congo, and in consequence seems to have hesitated
sometimes to give public addresses in the vernacular. Possibly
that was so ; but his many notes on the tongues of the Congo
and their mutual affinities show him to have been no mean
philologist. As a surveyor he needs no praise from the
present writer. He was exquisitely neat in his draughtsman-
ship. Much of his own map-clrawing — lettering and all — could
be reproduced photographically, and would seem the work of a
practised cartographer. His beautiful photographs, which form
the best illustrations in this book, speak for themselves ; but
they are remarkable, because many of them were taken at the
end of the 'seventies and in the early 'eighties, when photo-
graphy in the field was a matter of much greater difficulty than
it is at the present day.
Into his private life the present writer enters little more
1 GrenfelPs emoluments from the Baptist Mission during his long term of service
(practically from 1874 to 1879 and 1880 to 1906) were limited to an annual allowance
of ,£180. When he entered the service of King Leopold as commissioner from 1892
to 1893, the King, by arrangement with Grenfell, paid a sum of about ,£7°° to the
Mission to meet the cost of replacing Grenfell's services. So far as Grenfell was con-
cerned he merely continued to receive as before his annual allowance of £ 180 from
the B.M.S.
GEORGE GRENFELL
than is necessary to give a general idea of Grenfell's work
on the Congo. The actual biography — in England and in
Africa — of this missionary-explorer will be compiled in a more
suitable manner by another writer. It might, however, be not
unbecoming to mention in this prefatory chapter that Grenfell
refers constantly to three personalities (other than his Congo
colleagues), with grateful remarks for their advice and kindness.
The first, very naturally, is Mr. Alfred Henry Baynes, for many
years the Secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society ; the
second is Dr. Scott Keltie, the well-known Secretary of the
5. BOLOBO STATION ; GRENFELL'S HOME ON THE UPPER CONGO
FOR SIXTEEN YEARS
Royal Geographical Society; and the third is the brother of his
first wife, Mr. Joseph Hawkes, of Birmingham, who looked
after Grenfell's children when they were at school in England,
and rendered many other kindly services.
The writer of this book believes that practically the whole
of Grenfell's private papers have been placed in his hands,
because he has picked out geographical and scientific notes
even from the backs of washing lists ! It is therefore
pleasant to record that throughout the whole of this vast
correspondence there is not one single note indicative of un-
kindly feeling, of jealousy towards colleagues, of envy or dis-
paragement of more highly honoured brother-explorers. With
io GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
the exception of one or two references to employes of the Congo
Concessionnaire Companies whose doings have been discussed
in recent trials and libel actions, there is nothing in these
journals that might not be published to the world as it stands.
This book, however, does not deal entirely and only with
the work of George Grenfell. His researches, photographs, notes,
and references provide more than half the book. But it has
been deliberately intended by the present writer to combine with
an account of the geographical and scientific explorations of
Grenfell a survey of the contributions to science and to our
general knowledge of West Africa provided by the Baptist
Mission of Great Britain from the date of the arrival of Dr.
Prince and the Rev. John Clarke at the island of Fernando P6
in the year 1840 down to the present day.
Whatever may have been the ideals of hypothetical mis-
sionary societies in the middle of the nineteenth century —
ideals which gave rise to the conventional notion (scarcely yet
dead) of a missionary as a red-nosed person in a chimney-
pot hat, with black clothes, black gloves, huge boots, and a
large white tie, who sang hymns under palm trees to unrespon-
sive wild beasts — the representatives of the Baptist Missionary
Society have always been essentially practical men, with whom
science was, so far as they were able to serve it, a part of
their religion. Wherever they went they collected notes on
languages, on ethnography, and specimens to illustrate the
natural history of the countries they visited. If there was a
mountain anywhere within reach, they ascended it, boiled
thermometers on the top and took the temperature of the air.
They fixed the latitude and longitude of their stations, and
collected a large amount of geographical information which
very often found its way into circulation through other
channels. For the earlier missionaries were persons of retiring
and modest demeanour, who were only too glad to pass on
their notes to explorers, consuls, and the commanders of gun-
boats, in whose reports or volumes this information has usually
appeared with an acknowledgment of its source, but occasionally,
without.
The author of this present book first visited the Baptist
mission stations on the Cameroons in 1882. He resided at
Cameroons and Fernando P6 in a Consular capacity from 1885
to 1888. In the autumn of 1882 he ascended the River Congo,
first of all as far as Stanley Pool and later on to Bolobo. Be-
tween Banana Point and Stanley Pool he was not infrequently
GEORGE GRENFELL
ii
the guest of the newly founded Baptist mission stations, and so
in one way and the other made the personal acquaintance of all
the notable pioneers of this Mission. Noteworthy among these
pioneers were men of colour, negro missionaries from the West
Indies— such men as Joseph Fuller and John Pinnock, jr. 1 In-
formation regarding the Cameroons which the present writer
derived from Pinnock and Fuller in the 'eighties is incorporated
in this book, and he has ventured to supply as a sort of mortar
to the stones of others' quarrying experiences and notes of his
6. A missionary's house AT BOLENGI, UPPER CONGO
own connected with the regions described by Grenfell and
his colleagues.
There may be some reading this book who have supported
Mission work by practical contributions, as well as wordy sym-
pathy, who will complain that the aspect I present to them is
entirely secular, that very few references are made to religious
teaching. That is so : partly because the religious work con-
nected with Grenfell's mission will be described in another
volume by a minister of his Church. But there is also another
reason which should be taken into account, not only by those
who divorce the study of nature from religious ideas, but by
others, equally unreasonable, who not believing in the par-
1 Both of whom I am glad to think are still living. For Pinnock's portrait see
page 225. (H. H. J.)
12 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
ticular tenets or dogmas that may be held by such-and-such
a missionary society would ignore the enormous amount of
good that has been accomplished by Christian missions in
Africa from a purely ethical standpoint, and the gigantic con-
tributions they have made to the store of the world's know-
ledge in philology, in folklore, in first-hand studies of primitive
people, in contributions to botany, zoology, geography, and
map-making. It is the desire of the present writer to draw
general attention to these particular aspects and results of
missionary toil and enterprise.
My first journeys in tropical Africa (1882-1883) revealed
to me this collateral view of mission work and opened my
eyes to the missionaries' notable achievements in the introduc-
tion of a sound, material civilization (for the civilization which
is merely based on the singing of hymns, the intoning of
psalms, and the repetition of prayers is most wzsound). The
scientific understanding of Africa was assisted by their com-
pilation of treatises on dying languages ; while the friendly
relations of Europeans and negroes were forwarded by the
Mission grammars and vocabularies of living languages destined
to be means of intercourse between black and white or black
and yellow. I was the guest of such great missionaries of the
Roman Church as Pere Duparquet in southern Angola, visited
Bishop Crowther and his son in the Niger Delta, discussed
ethnology with patriarchs of African discovery like the Rev.
Hugh Goldie of the United Presbyterian Mission on the Cross
River ; and watched the Primitive Methodists timidly holding
on in Fernando P6 under the still frowning Spanish Govern-
ment (not then friendly to Protestant missions). I visited the
Baptist missionaries on the Duala shore in the Cameroons, and
made the acquaintance of Comber, Bentley, Crudgington, and
other Baptist missionaries on the western Congo. My work
then led me to the other side of the continent, the sphere
of the Universities' Mission at Zanzibar and of the Church
Missionary Society on the Mombasa coast, to the French,
Dutch, and Irish priests of the Mission of the Holy Ghost
and the Sacred Heart of Mary, and later on to the Mission
of the White Fathers on Tanganyika and Nyasa, the Lon-
don Missionary Society, and the Missions of the Established
and Free Churches of Scotland in British Central Africa. I
scarcely recall with any of these propagandists a discussion on
theology or matters of faith. If such had taken place, no doubt
deep-seated differences of opinion might have been revealed ;
but I do remember (besides most warm-hearted, unstinted hos-
GEORGE GRENFELL
13
pitality) that I soon came to regard them as men deeply versed
in the lore of Africa, and above all as the Tribunes of the people.
It has been the custom to regard missionaries of British
nationality as pioneers of Empire ; and it is so far true in that
the successful establishment of a British religious mission has
frequently been followed by a sphere of influence, a pro-
tectorate, a colony. But this has arisen partly because the
calming of the natives and the civilization introduced by the
missionaries has attracted British trade, while acquaintance with
7. BRICK-MAKING AT BOPOTO : AN ELEMENT IN "SOUND, MATERIAL
CIVILIZATION "
the missionaries themselves as examples of the British type ot
white man has favourably disposed native chiefs and people
towards the political intervention of Great Britain. To a certain
extent similar results have followed from the action of other
missionaries, not British ; that is to say that the work of the
Rhenish missions in South-West Africa certainly paved the
way for the German Protectorate over that region. Portuguese
missionaries attempted in former centuries to do the same thing
for their own country. 1 The French missionaries have quite
1 Curiously enough they brought about a contrary effect, undoing by their political
ambitions some of the good achieved by the conquistadores who had preceded them,
and who had captivated the fancy of the negro to a degree hardly equalled by the
representatives of any other white race down to the present day— those conquistadores
14 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
naturally attempted to "francify" West Africa, Central Africa,
Northern Africa, and Madagascar. Italian missionaries have
desired to bring Abyssinia back to the influence of modern
Rome. It is not surprising therefore if British missionaries
have wished to replace the sickening disorder they have found
in native communities by the peace and comfort that prevail in
most British colonies.
But it is not the case that they have been "Imperialists" first
and propagandists second. More often than not British mis-
sionaries have made a stout fight for the independence, the
property, the morality of the people amongst whom they have
settled. One has only to recall the efforts made by bishops and
missionaries of the Church of England in Natal, by the Scottish
missionaries in the Shire Highlands and on Lake Nyasa, the
London Missionary Society's agents (of whom Livingstone was
once one) from the interior of Cape Colony right up to Tan-
ganyika through Bechuanaland, to recall instances in which
British missionaries have incurred the dislike of British Imperial
and Colonial officials, military officers, consuls, explorers, or
concession-hunters by standing up for the rights of the native,
and even deprecating the introduction of a direct form of British
government where the native community seemed happy and
well ordered without it.
Of course here and there abuses of missionary authority
have occurred. Elated with the rapid growth of their in-
fluence — an influence entirely unsupported by arms — the mis-
sionary has thought to create a Theocracy, a little state
governed on his own plan, in which he would wield supreme
authority as spiritual and temporal ruler, keeping out the
roystering trader, the miner, the hunter, and even the consul or
magistrate. Rare cases have even occurred where, unbalanced
by the power they wielded, missionaries have had recourse to
arbitrary and even cruel methods for enforcing their decrees,
or rather, where they have allowed "lay agents" to perform
the obnoxious part of castigator. The present writer has even
once or twice in his own career as an administrator come into
conflict with missionary opinion, the latter being doggedly on
the side of peace when warlike measures seemed unavoidable
if some definite authority was to be upheld. But the excep-
tions to the general rule of missionary beneficence are trifling
who after only a few years' intercourse left an impress on Benin not yet lost, who
inspired much of the civilization of south Congoland, and who left many a grand
building and many a word in the languages to attest their brief domination over the
East African littoral.
GEORGE GRENFELL
15
in comparison to the results of a hundred years of missionary-
work in Africa from, let us say, 1807 to 1907. When this
period has receded into the perspective of history we shall
realize that it is the one section of that tremendous century of
the European invasion of Africa to which we can look back
with absolute satisfaction, since its results must be adjudged
good by the canon common to all humanity, to the educated
Moslem, the Christian, the Agnostic, or the worshipper of
African deities.
Missionary thought, at any rate in the Protestant fold,
8. NATIVE BLACKSMITHS TRAINED BY THE BAPTIST MISSION ON THE
UPPER CONGO
passed through one or two silly phases in the sentimental
'forties and 'fifties of the last century, phases held up to well-
deserved and scarcely too trenchant caricature by Charles
Dickens in his sketch of Mrs. Jellyby, her associates and her
attempts to civilize Borriaboola-Gha. 1 Occasionally, more-
over, outside missionary circles, there has flitted before one's
mental vision in reading literature connected with missions (of
twenty years ago and more) a concept of a large, loutish negro
or Asiatic, dressed in too many garments, lolling at his ease,
supported by the doles of far-away contributors, and only
called upon in redemption of his laziness to sing a good many
1 These passages in Bleak House were really intended to satirize the ridiculous
fuss made over the " King " of Bonny.
16 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
badly translated hymns and to have waded through Scripture
history from Genesis to Judges. I write " there has flitted
before one's mental vision," but as likely as not the lay reader
was biassed by writers inimical to missionary influence, and
found in their caricatures the ideals which the missionaries were
supposed to work for, but which in reality never entered the
minds of the most sentimental amongst them.
No such ideal of hypocritical idleness can be found by
9. B.M.S.S. "PEACE ON THE NORTHERN CONGO, NEAR STANLEY FALLS
The " Peace " was the steamer in which Grenfell made his principal exploring journeys.
anyone who probes the literature of the Baptist Missionary
Society, certainly not that inspired by Saker, nor which has
grown up since 1878 in the great Congo Mission. Work, hard
work, intelligent work, education, thrift, sanitation, the rising up
to lead a decent, joyous, comfortable life are among the aims
striven for in their work and teaching by such men as Grenfell,
Comber, Bentley, Weeks, Lewis, and all the representatives of
this mission.
But as it seems impossible in this world to satisfy every-
body, the very stress that I may lay for the conciliation of the
GEORGE GRENFELL 17
Mammon of Unrighteousness, of that growing class which is
more and more indifferent to the inculcation of dogma, on the
practical good achieved by missionary societies will furnish a
basis for the sneers of peevish reactionaries (and there are still
many) who care nothing for the " moral and material " welfare
of the backward races, but whose only object in supporting
missionary societies is that the heathen may be converted to
such and such a section of Christianity, that in Africa may be
perpetuated the religious hatreds, differences, and rivalries of
Mediaeval Europe, or of some petty English provincial town.
I still venture to hope, however, that any reader who has
the patience to go through these two bulky volumes may have
been brought to realize firstly the great material good effected
by the work of the Baptist Mission in Fernando P6, the
Cameroons, and the basin of the Congo ; and secondly, the
remarkable additions contributed by Grenfell and his colleagues
to the sum of human knowledge, to scientific research : which
as time goes on must become more and more identified with
our religion, and with our attempts to gauge and declare the
truth.
CHAPTER II
FERNANDO PO : 1840-58
THE Baptist Missionary Society of England came into
existence at Nottingham in the autumn of 1792 as an
outcome of the eloquence of William Carey, who sailed
with his wife for India on a Danish ship in 1793. 1 In 1806
the attention of this missionary society was drawn to the condi-
tion of the negro slaves in the British West Indies, and the
first missionary went out from England to Jamaica in 18 14.
Here, in Jamaica, and in other West India islands, the Baptist
missionaries joined forces with the Quakers and other Non-
conformist bodies in advocating the abolition of slavery.
When this result was achieved the Baptists began to turn
their attention to the movement for repatriating freed slaves
on the West Coast of Africa. West Indian and United States
Baptist ministers had already interested themselves in the
foundation of Liberia. In pursuance of ideas similar to that
which brought about the foundation of Liberia, the Baptist
Mission sent two of its workers in Jamaica (Dr. G. K. Prince
and the Rev. John Clarke) to find a further likely home for
freed slaves on West African territory other than the settle-
ments of Sierra Leone and Liberia. A visit was paid to the
Spanish possessions of Fernando P6 in 1840, and the report of
Prince and Clarke being favourable, 2 in 1843 two expeditions
of Baptist missionaries, amongst whom were the Rev. Joseph
Merrick (of Jamaica), Alfred Saker, Thomas Sturgeon, Dr.
1 Any idea of Christian propaganda, except such as had already been established
by the Church of Rome, was distasteful to the Directors of the Honourable East
India Company, who feared therefrom an outbreak of Muhammadan and Hindu
fanaticism. The beginnings of the Baptist Missionary Society in India were practi-
cally only made possible by the protection and assistance of the King and Queen of
Denmark, that country at the end of the eighteenth century having a certain foothold
on or influence over the shores or islands of the Bay of Bengal.
2 In regard to the land and buildings offered then for acquisition at the north
end of the island, land which had formerly been cleared and occupied by the Admiralty
as a naval station.
FERNANDO PO : 1840-58
19
G. K. Prince, and the Rev. John Clarke, 1 set out for Fernando
P6. Prince, Sturgeon, and Merrick had travelled from England
to Fernando P6 by some more direct route than the customary
sailing-vessel voyage via the West Indies ; but Saker and
Clarke went first
to Jamaica, where £§§[ MBi£SMHIiWIIWHMIII0aKiM^k2
they gathered more
people who were de-
sirous to emigrate
to Africa, and they
did not reach Port
Clarence, at the
north end of Fer-
nando P6, till Feb-
ruary 1844. They
made the journey
all the way from
Cornwall to Jam-
aica and Jamaica
to Fernando Pd in
a small sailing ves-
sel, the Chilmark,
of only 179 tons.
The island of
Fernando P6 is
said traditionally to
have been discov-
ered by a Portu-
guese navigator in 1471, whose name was Fernam do Poo or
Povo [" Ferdinand of the people "]. He is reported to have
IO. THE REV. JOHN CLARKE, A PIONEER AFRICAN PHILO-
LOGIST AND MISSIONARY IN FERNANDO PO
1 The Rev. John Clarke, of Jericho, Jamaica, was one of the first students of
African languages of the modern school. Writing in the 'forties of the last century,
he had already grasped the idea — promulgated first by Lichtenstein in 1808— of the
homogeneity of the Bantu languages. He realized that the southern third of Africa
was covered with but one great speech group (except of course the tongues of the
Bushmen and Hottentot), and understood that there was community of origin between
the languages of Zanzibar and Fernando P6. Clarke published in 1844 Specimens of
Dialects: Short Vocabularies of about Two Hundred African Languages" which he had
taken down from freed slaves. He thus no doubt suggested to a brother missionary of
the Church of England, the Rev. S. S. Koelle, that much greater work, Polyglotta
Africana, which was soon afterwards commenced at Sierra Leone. Clarke was also
the author of the earliest and perhaps the best treatises on the indigenous Bantu
language of Fernando P6, entitled The Adeeyah Vocabulary (1841) and Introduction
to the Fernandian Tongue (1848). These are further alluded to in an appendix to the
present book. Owing to ill-health, he left Fernando Po in 1849 wltn a party of
Jamaican emigrants who were dissatisfied with their life in Africa, and returned to the
West Indies. Clarke died in 1879.
20 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
called the island, very appropriately, Ilha Formosa [the
"Beautiful Island"]. He afterwards turned to the north, and
discovered, or at any rate visited and named, the Benin River,
which on account of the rich forest on its banks he styled
Rio Formoso or the Beautiful River. Nothing more is known
or recorded of him, but the island has ever since borne his
name in a slightly altered form.
The Portuguese made but little attempt to colonize the
island, either on account of the hostility of" the indigenes, or
because of the unhealthy climate of the coast. In 1777 it was
transferred to Spain in exchange for an island and a strip of
coast in Brazil. The Spaniards desired to make it the base for
their slave-trading operations in the Bights of Biafra and
Benin, for towards the close of the eighteenth century an
increasing demand was being made for negro labour in the
Spanish-American possessions. But the Spaniards abandoned
the island owing to the hostility of the natives in 1782 (and
also because of the unhealthiness of the climate). British war-
ships and merchant vessels began to visit Fernando P6 in
1783, and from 1827 till 1845 Fernando P6 became the naval
base for the British fleet in the Gulf of Guinea. 1 Till 1834
the island was governed for Great Britain by an energetic
man, Lieut. -Colonel Nicholls, who had already conceived the
ambitious idea of a great British tropical possession in the
Cameroons, and who had actually hoisted the British flag
on that coast and concluded a treaty with the local chief of
Bimbia, near the base of the Cameroons Mountain.
When the British Government decided to evacuate Fer-
nando P6 in 1834, they sold the property they had acquired
from the Bube natives at the north end of the island to
Messrs. Dillon and Tennant, who afterwards transferred it
1 In 1827 the celebrated navigator Captain W. F. Owen took possession of the
island (on Christmas Day) for King George IV, and purchased one square mile of
land from the Bube chiefs. Besides his two frigates the Eden and the Diadem,
he had with him the first steam gunboat in these waters, the African. It was
announced that the following reasons induced the British Government to take this
step : (1) To watch slavers and to check the Slave Trade in the Bight of Biafra.
(2) To be able to liberate negroes taken in slave vessels in the Gulf of Guinea,
and so avoid the long voyage to Sierra Leone. (3) To be able to move the Mixed
Commission Court from Sierra Leone and abandon, as Government settlements,
Sierra Leone and Cape Coast Castle, should the island be found to be as healthy
as the projectors of the plan anticipated. (4) To afford the greatest possible
facilities for introducing religion, commerce, and civilization into Africa. But
rum and debauchery, besides ignorance of African hygiene and the mosquito
danger, played havoc with the bluejackets and marines ; and in 1834 Admiral
Fleming ordered the abandonment of the station as a naval base in favour of the
peninsula of Sierra Leone. The Niger expedition caused it to be partially occupied
till 1845.
FERNANDO PO : 1840-58
21
to the West African Company, whose affairs were directed
by a certain Captain Beecroft. 1 The West African Com-
pany sold their property in 1843 to the Baptist Mission.
Meantime, between 1827 and 1840, a large extraneous
negro population [generally called " Poto " negroes] had been
settled in the vicinity of Port Clarence. Here the tribunal
for judging the captured slave-trading ships was established
(until 1834), and in many cases the released slaves were de-
posited at the north end of Fernando P6 in default of any other
home.
SSL . . . ,_j£
II. CLARENCE (OR SANTA ISABEL) PEAK, FERNANDO PO, ABOUT
10,000 FEET IN ALTITUDE
It was chiefly amongst the West Indian immigrants [who
hoped to found another Liberia], and the numerous slaves from
the Congo, Cameroons, and Niger Delta freed by the British
cruisers and landed at Port Clarence, that the Baptist Mission-
ary Society carried on its work ; though several not unsuccess-
ful attempts were made to Christianize and civilize the timid
Bubes or indigenous forest tribes of Fernando P6. These
latter, however, proved themselves sixty years ago, as at the
present time, very refractory to European civilization. Though
1 Beecroft subsequently became British Consul [and Acting Spanish Governor]
for Fernando P6 and Consul for the Oil Rivers, and in this capacity, in a small
steamer called the Ethiope, he explored the Cross River behind Old Calabar, his
furthest point in 1844 remaining the limit to European exploration in that direction
until the settlement of the Anglo-German boundary in 1890.
22 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
timid, and seldom actively hostile to the white man, they
shrank from his influence, and had always resented his presence
on the island from the earliest attempts at settlement by the
Portuguese and Spaniards.
Nevertheless, at Port Clarence (so christened in 1827
in honour of the future William IV) the Baptist Mis-
sionary Society founded a flourishing station amid a foreign,
English-speaking colony of over two thousand negroes and
mulattoes. Some of the West Indian families remain there to
this day, or have moved over to the adjoining coast at Ambas
Bay. 1
But even as early as 1845 the Baptist missionaries were led
to anticipate difficulties from the intention of Spain to reoccupy
Fernando P6, and to exclude therefrom as far as possible any
form of Protestant Christianity, or any agency that might keep
alive in the minds of the negro settlers the idea of British
nationality. In 1846 two Spanish warships arrived. The
Spanish flag was hoisted at Port Clarence, which was re-
named Santa Isabel, and a number of Spanish priests were
landed. To the Prior of the Order of the Immaculate Heart
of Mary was entrusted the control of all education in the
island.
Although the Spanish Governor displayed a certain kindli-
ness and consideration towards the obviously good results of
the work of Prince, Saker, and Clarke, the priests who accom-
panied him objected strongly to the presence on the island of
these Baptist missionaries. Their objections might have led to
the immediate expulsion of the Baptists but that in 1847 almost
all the Spanish missionaries were dead of fever or had with-
drawn owing to severe illness. They were obliged moreover
to accept the medical ministrations of Dr. G. K. Prince, and
this rendered difficult an attitude of uncompromising hostility.
The Baptists therefore were allowed for some twelve years to
continue their educational work in a very limited form to those
foreign negroes who were already members of the Baptist
Church. But at last, in 1858, even this permission was with-
drawn, and the Baptists were practically expelled from the
island, their land (originally purchased from the West African
Trading Company) being expropriated. The Spanish Gover-
nor held out some prospect of monetary compensation, and
counting on this act of obvious justice being carried into effect
by the metropolitan Government at Madrid, the head of the
1 From one of these is descended the widow of the missionary-explorer
Grenfell.
FERNANDO PO : 1840-58 23
Mission (then Alfred Saker) resolved to invest the com-
pensation for their property in Fernando P6 in purchasing
the site for a large settlement on the opposite coast of Ambas
Bay. 1
The best work of the Baptist Mission in Fernando P6 was
carried on between the years 1844 and 1849. Mr. Clarke,
however, had returned to Jamaica in 1848 with a number of
dissatisfied West Indians. The incidents of Liberian history
were repeated. Mulattoes and negroes born in America found
they could not stand the equatorial West African climate much
better than Europeans : that is to say they were not any more
immune from malarial fever. The Spanish Government at
this period paralysed industry. It would not (then) take com-
plete charge of the island and carry out necessary public works ;
neither would it allow the missionaries or the West Indian
settlers to do so.
In 1849, Dr. Prince, his wife, and another medical mis-
sionary, Newbegin, 2 were compelled to leave for England
owing to serious illness. The fact was, no one in those days
guessed the connection of the mosquito with malarial fever.
The actual climate of Fernando P6 was — is — much less en-
feebling, much healthier than that of the mainland. But the
rank vegetation round the settlements harboured innumerable
mosquitoes, including, no doubt, many Anopheles. The im-
ported slaves from the adjoining mainland supplied the malarial
germs, and so the fevers of Fernando P6 — from 1780 to
(say) 1900 — were more frequent and more fatal than those
of Old Calabar or the Cameroons estuary. But since the avoid-
ance of the mosquito and the destruction of his harbourage
have been understood at Fernando P6, Europeans have
found it (especially above 3,000 feet altitude) not much less
healthy than the kindred island of Sao Thome [which is
actually a European colony, like Madeira, though under the
Equator].
The " Poto " 3 population of West Indian, Sierra Leone,
and freed-slave origin which was mainly planted by the Bap-
1 As a matter of fact, it was not until the British Ambassador at Madrid had
made very strong representations to the Spanish Government, that the compensation
money — ,£1,500 — was paid, at the close of 1861. The Mission had been led to expect
that they would receive ,£2,000, which was considerably less than what they had spent
on their lands at Port Clarence, and they had therefore invested ,£2,000 by 1858 in
the acquisition of the Victoria settlement at Ambas Bay.
2 Dr. Newbegin afterwards returned to Cameroons.
3 Poto was the Bube name for the British settlement at Clarence (now Santa
Isabel). The word seems to have meant "foreign" and may be an abbreviation of
" Portuguese."
24 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
tists round Santa Isabel, has after many fluctuations and
resolves to leave Spanish rule finally begun to prosper, owing
to the cacao-planting industry introduced by Messrs. John
Holt and Co. and by some enterprising Spaniards, Cubans, and
Portuguese. This agriculture, the use of the English language,
the adhesion to Protestant forms of Christianity, are all relics
of the Baptist settlement of 1843-9 and 185 1-8.
In the beginning of 1870 the Spanish Government under
the liberal direction of Prince allowed the Primitive Metho-
dists to succeed the Baptists in order to minister to the needs
of the English-speaking colony which was outside the fold of
Rome. But of late years this mission has been harassed in
its work by many restrictions. They may not have bells
on their churches, their day-schools have been peremptorily
closed. They may not conduct services in the church at the
burial of the dead. They are thus very much hampered in
dealing with the civilized negro element in the Europeanized
towns.
But the Primitive Methodists do not appear to be prevented
by the Spanish Government from working among the indi-
genous Bubes, and as early as 1875 they had added to Clarke's
studies of the Bube language. This interesting aboriginal
population [which will be further described in the second
volume of this book] seems now to be on the down grade.
They are succumbing to the bad rum which is unhappily
allowed to be imported (or manufactured) and sold by the
Cuban, " Poto," or European traders : despite the protests of
the Catholic and Methodist missionaries.
Although the attitude of the Spanish Government in the
island has not been consistent with principles of religious free-
dom and may in this instance have been inspired by the Roman
Catholic missionaries, these last have been — at any rate for
more than thirty years — solicitous for the welfare of the
Bubes. 1
When Clarke and Prince originally selected Fernando P6
as a refuge for Jamaican negroes who were unhappy in the
West Indies, and similarly when the British Government
chose Fernando P6 as the dumping ground for the slaves set
free from captured slave-ships, neither party gave much heed to
the real natives of Fernando P6 — the Bubes — who in Clarke's
1 The Rev. Father Joaquim Juanola, a missionary of the order "Del Inmaculado
Corazon de Maria," published in 1890 an important study of the Bube language.
His colleagues have carefully explored and mapped the island. Principal Father
Coll and Father Albanell of the same mission have done good work among the
Bubes of the Moka district.
FERNANDO PO : 1840-58
25
day (say 1848) numbered over twenty thousand. Subsequently
the Baptist missionaries made a special study of this people
just as the Spanish priests have done. Both 'types of mis-
sionaries 1 acted as
buffers between the
British seamen or
Spanish soldiers, the
traders, planters,
West Indian, Sierra
Leone, and Kru
negroes, on the one
hand; and the timid,
sometimes treacher-
ous indigenes on the
other. Grenfell [who
visited Fernando P6
between 1876 and
1 901] was one of
the very few Euro-
peans who ever in-
duced a Bube to
take up regular ser-
vice and to leave
Fernando P6 for
employment. But
even now the Bube
stands aloof and
goes on leading the
life of the Stone
Age, whilst Fer-
nando P6 planters
send all the way to
Liberia for labour
in the cacao planta-
tions. There is only
one thing the white
man can offer which will tempt the Bube to do any work :
rum. It is to be feared by the time the Bube is ready to
accept as a first principle that he must toil as other men do
he will be— as a race — on the verge of extinction, poisoned by
rum and gin in spite of all the conferences of European powers
which lay down principles regarding the sale of alcohol to
1 And equally so — according to the Austrian traveller, Oskar Baumann — have
the Primitive Methodists through such men as the Rev. John Barleycorn.
12. A BUBE OR INDIGENOUS NATIVE OF FERNANDO PO
26 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
heedless savages, and decline to put them into practice.
Perhaps the missionaries may intervene in time to save a
remnant of a very interesting Bantu people. But the rapid
growth of a foreign population — negro, mulatto, and white —
in an island of extraordinary fertility and beauty, with a range
of climate and products from equatorial heat and all the most
precious growths of the tropics to the crisp coolness, the
flowers and vegetables of western Europe, may soon swamp
the poor Bubes in spite of all the missionaries can do to tame
and train them.
CHAPTER III
THE CAMEROONS: 1845-87
THE name Cameroons, which is primarily applicable to
the estuary of many rivers which lies to the south-east
of the Cameroon Mountains, was given in the first
place by the Portuguese when their ships discovered this
region in 1480. The word is an English corruption of the
Portuguese plural Camaroes, meaning "prawns." When the
Portuguese ships entered the brackish water of this estuary
(about 1480) they noticed, as many subsequent travellers have
done, the abundance of prawns, especially in the mangrove
creeks. The name has recently been extended to all the region
lying to the south of Old Calabar country and the Rio del Rey
estuary, and north of about 2 30' N. Lat. The Germans,
when they first began to take an interest in African geography,
chose to spell the name phonetically (as it was pronounced by
the English), and the official designation of a vast German
possession which has grown up from the original nucleus on
the Cameroons estuary is now given as Kamerun. No doubt
many people, English as well as German, think this is some
word of African origin, and not a very trivial designation
meaning prawns or shrimps.
Very little was known of this country beyond its actual
coast line until the Baptist missionaries moved across to the
peninsula of Bimbia and the Duala shores of the Cameroons
estuary in 1845.
Already in 1844 Saker 1 and Merrick 2 had turned their eyes
1 Alfred Saker, the "Apostle of the Cameroons," was born in 1814 at the still
charming village of Borough Green, near Wrotham, Kent. He was the sort of a
millwright and engineer, passed an examination at Woolwich Arsenal, and worked
as a draughtsman in the Government dockyards of Deptford and Devonport till he
joined the Baptist Mission in 1843.
2 Joseph Merrick was a West Indian mulatto who from the beginning of 1845
devoted himself more especially to the Isubu people of the Bimbia promontory.
This race, which also inhabits the north-western part of the Cameroons delta —
Bimbia Peninsula, in fact, and the islands or promontories immediately to the south
— is rather distinct from the Bakwiri on the north and the Duala people on the south,
the Isubu dialect being a separate language from the Duala, though closely akin to
27
28 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
towards the Cameroons, attracted no doubt by the magnificent
extinct volcano which at some twenty miles distance from the
great peak of Fernando P6 rises about 13,370 feet straight
up from the seashore, and occasionally has its highest ridges
flecked with snow. In the beginning of 1845 Merrick visited
Bimbia. On this promontory resided a somewhat truculent
slave-trading "king," who had taken the name of William
ever since the British occupied Fernando P6 in the reign of
r
V~
9m
'.** 'ftiiwu
f33BiSa>r»«CLV,J
13. THE CAMEROONS MOUNTAINS SEEN FROM NEAR FERNANDO Po
King William IV. King William of Bimbia had indeed
allowed Colonel Nicholls to hoist the British flag over his
territory some ten years before the arrival of Merrick, and it
was always considered down to the sudden irruption of the
Germans in 1884 that Bimbia as well as the adjoining Ambas
Bay was under British protection.
It was not, however, till 1848 that a permanent station was
established by the Baptists on the Bimbia promontory, for
Bakwiri. Merrick made a special study of the Isubu language, chiefly in Scripture
translations, and these were of some service to the great grammarian, Dr. W. I. Bleek.
In fact, down to the present day the only published authority on the Isubu language
is Merrick, who wrote sixty years ago. The present writer has made a considerable
study also of the Isubu language with the aid of Duala scholars trained in the Baptist
mission schools in the Cameroons. He has not had the opportunity hitherto of
publishing his researches.
THE CAMEROONS: 1845-87
29
King William was at first
ment, as he was anxious
with British, Portuguese,
that the mission-
aries would give
information to
the British pre-
ventive cruisers.
It was therefore in
the Duala country
of the Cameroons
estuary that the
Baptist Mission
erected its first
permanent estab-
lishment. Alfred
Saker went in
1845 to visit King
Bell and Chief Di-
do 1 on the Duala
shore. Bell ap-
parently did not
offer any site for
a mission station,
and Chief Dido in
doing so incurred
the anger of his
superior, King
Akwa, with the
result that Saker's
first attempt
nearly ended in
bloodshed. But
by his diplomacy
he appeased the
quarrel and induced Dido
Baptist Mission in favour
a little suspicious about their settle-
to continue a profitable slave trade
and Brazilian captains, and feared
'Wm^m^^
. ,;,««*,
14. a typical duala gentleman of the olden time
(about 1874)
Shark Dido, of Dido Town, Cameroons, son of the Chief Dido herein
referred to.
to waive his claim to be the host of the
of King Akwa, in whose town in June
1 Many of the meaningless or ridiculous names borne by African chiefs or head-
men in the first half of the nineteenth century are derived from the names of the
British cruisers in these waters, Chief Dido of the Cameroons taking his name, for
example, from H.M.S. Dido. Or the names were taken from trading ships, or were
bestowed by the humour of the traders. Very often a real native designation received
a misinterpretation at the hands of the English. Thus, King Bell (whose dynasty
afterwards became famous as that which sold the Duala country to the Germans) was
really King Mbeli or Mbela, a clan name amongst the Duala chiefs.
30 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
1845 was established the first Baptist mission station on the
continent of Africa. This, after the fashion of the time, was
called Bethel. It remained in existence down to 1887 and was
then transferred, at the request of the German Government,
to the Basel Mission.
The Duala people, amongst whom the Baptist Mission was
to play an important role, was a tribe of considerable potency,
though not very numerous. By tradition they had reached
the shores of the Cameroons estuary some one hundred and
fifty to two hundred years ago, coming, they alleged, from the
north or north-east. 1 The progenitor of the tribe was a
chieftain named Mbeli or Mbela who had two sons, Koli and
Duala. Koli became the ancestor of the Isubu people of Bimbia,
and Duala "da Mbeli" originated the Ba-duala of the Cameroons
River. Mbeli (in the corrupted European form of Bell)
remains a royal clan name. They displaced the Basa tribe
which still inhabits the " bush " country behind the Duala on the
south, but which does not differ remarkably from the Duala
in language. If this legend as to the direction from which the
Duala came has been correctly interpreted, it opens up a
problem in Bantu migrations, for the Duala language is much
more truly Bantu, much less corrupted than the forms of
speech like the Abo, Bonken, etc., which seem to have pre-
ceded it along the shores of the Cameroons River. One
might therefore have concluded that the Duala had approached
the Cameroons from the south-east, were it not that the
Bakundu, Isubu, Bakwiri, and even the Bakundu and Barondo
languages of the upper Mungo River and the northern
Cameroons coast are also akin to Duala (Bakundu, especially)
and are more typically " Bantu " than the pre-existing languages
of the Cameroons basin.
Not only in their language, however, but also in physique
and capacity for civilization, the Duala people suggest closer
affinities with a superior Bantu type of the Upper Congo and
of the Great Lakes region. They are sometimes quite light
in skin, with intelligent faces and good brain development.
Their physique was once splendid, 2 though towards the close
of the nineteenth century they began to exhibit some de-
1 Grenfell held that they had come up from the south, and were originally settled
on the Lungasi River. His proposition is more tenable on linguistic grounds.
Language relationships make a directly eastern origin of the Duala improbable.
2 " Large-framed, sinewy, and well-developed in every limb, the Duala is a fine
specimen of the genus Homo" [George Allan]. Allan describes the Duala as almost
fastidiously clean. From the age of three or four days old, each true Duala infant
must be bathed in the Cameroons River. Thenceforth it is bathed every day, either
THE CAMEROONS: 1845-87
31
generacy from the curses of alcohol and venereal disease in-
troduced by Europeans.
Although a fine, intelligent people, they were bloodthirsty
and quarrelsome. The ruling families of Bell (Mbeli) and
Akwa seem to have carried on a perpetual feud. The Bell
clan occupied the south bank of the estuary near the sea.
Then ensued, east of King Bell's town, a mile or so of
neutral ground made uninhabitable by civil war, and eastwards
again followed the towns of King Akwa and his subordinate
chiefs.
In the early 'eighties the Duala population was esti-
mated at about twenty
thousand, of whom
some thirteen thou-
sand were slaves. A
kind of middle class
was formed by those
who were descended
from a Duala father
by a slave mother,
and finally there was
a small aristocracy of
pure Duala blood,
very proud of their
descent from the
original " Duala da r 5- carved duala stool belonging to a chief
Mbeli." The smallest
admixture of slave blood in a man was sufficient to con-
sign him to the second class of half-breeds. This middle
class led a very precarious existence in former days, before
the German rule was established. Though ostensibly free and
owners of property, they could take no part in the discussion
of public affairs, and if they became wealthy through trade
they incurred the deadly hatred of the aristocrats, the pure
Duala. In such a case they were almost invariably accused of
witchcraft and killed by the poison ordeal. The thirteen
thousand slaves were rather serfs than thralls, and were very
seldom sold or exchanged. At that period they were easily
distinguished at sight from the true Duala aristocracy, which
was always of much finer physical development, and with less
until it dies or is able at last to wash itself unaided. Quite a large proportion of the
children were supposed to die from this water ordeal within a month of their birth ;
but certainly those that survived were of very strong physique, and were able to swim
soon after they could walk, and to paddle a canoe when only four or five years old.
32 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
marked negro features than the serfs or bush people under
their control.
The motives of the Duala people were mixed, when they
invited the Baptists to establish a mission amongst them in
1845. The leading chiefs had a dim idea that they would like
their children taught to read and write. They also thoroughly
appreciated the material civilization which the Mission promised
to introduce, and believed that the missionaries would attract a
large volume of commerce to the country. But they desired all
the same to carry on a trade in slaves.
Between 1840 and 1877 there was a marked revival of the
slave trade along the West Coast of Africa from Dahome to
the mouth of the Congo. The southern states of North
America, the Spanish colonies of Cuba and Porto Rico, and
the independent republics or empires of Central and South
America had a pressing need for negro workers. British and
French action at sea, and establishment of colonies, and also
the direct influence of the United States in Liberia, had
practically closed to the slavers all the coast of northern
Guinea from the Senegal to the Volta. Brazilians, however,
had settled in Dahome and at Lagos, and aided by one
or two nefarious Englishmen and Portuguese half-castes,
they had created flourishing slave - markets at Whydah,
Lagos, at the mouth of the Cameroons, and on the Lower
Congo.
In the 'sixties the position of the Baptist Mission in the
Cameroons was greatly endangered by the intrigues of the
slavers. In fact, the life of the missionaries on the Duala
shore between 1845 and 1870 was a precarious one. The
Duala chiefs approved of education, but wanted "no nonsense
about religion," especially any interference in sexual matters.
They were annoyed because Mission converts refused to take
part in initiation ceremonies or dances, especially those of an
indecent character. Sometimes the women converts were
seized by force and had drugs administered to them or rubbed
into them, of a supposed aphrodisiac character, which, however,
had only the effect of poison or inducing a state of idiocy.
Others again were obliged to drink an infusion of poisonous
" nuts " {Strychnos f) as an ordeal to prove their non-complicity
in cases of witchcraft. Or, if they were slaves, were savagely
mutilated for listening to the Mission teaching without the
consent of their masters.
Saker had not been long settled at Bethel when King Akwa
died. " Indescribable scenes of disorder, confusion, and wrong
THE CAMEROONS: 1845-87 33
ensued." The two elder brothers quarrelled and intrigued for
the succession. The houses of the dead chief were ransacked.
Even the box containing his remains was broken open and
rifled of everything of value. His wives and slaves destroyed
the dwelling he had occupied. The town was given up to
plunder. In October the Mission premises were invaded:
" Knives, spoons, forks, and table-linen, and worst of all, the
flour on which life itself depended, together with the goats and
fowls were carried off." 1 These disorders continued till the
month of December, when a British gunboat appeared on the
scene, and through the intervention of the naval officers the
eldest son of Akwa was declared king, and peace was re-
stored.
In the middle of these disputes the fifty sons of King Akwa
wrangled as to the price that should be paid by Mr. Saker for
the plot of land on which the Mission station stood. The
amount was soon settled, but the purchase was followed by
incessant bickerings amongst the vendors respecting their
shares, and constant attempts were made to force more cloth
and trade goods from the Mission. Three days after the pur-
chase was completed, a large body of Akwa's sons and slaves
collected together armed with firebrands, guns, stones, and
swords, and with wild noise and shouting demanded possession
of the house. Reasoning was in vain. One son in his rage
split the door of the Mission house with his axe into three
pieces. A week afterwards another assault on the place was
made, with the result that Mrs. Saker and her little girl nearly
died from mental agitation and lack of food. But at last some
of the better-natured amongst the chiefs interfered, and a goat
was given to the Mission as some compensation for the damage.
Never after this was the actual Mission station in such danger
of destruction, though the work of the Mission was once or
twice threatened by serious conspiracies, directed more against
the destruction of the converts than the missionaries them-
selves.
But Saker was not easily dismayed. Almost while the
naked, bloodthirsty, drunken savages 2 were battering at his
doors he was plodding away at the composition of a Duala
vocabulary, in fact, finishing the draft of his first class-book
1 From Alfred Saker, etc. : A Biography, by Dr. E. B. Underhill, 1884.
2 The Duala people at this time and for many years afterwards were remarkable
amongst the coast populations for their nudity. The Mission interfered no more with
this than to inculcate some sense of decency in the men. The young unmarried
women went absolutely naked down to the days of German administration, no one
seeing any harm in the practice.
I. — D
34 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
which was to go home to England to be printed for use in the
Duala schools.
By the close of 1846 Saker had made some journeys of
exploration through the Basa country to the south of the Duala
towns.
In 1847 he describes his life thus: — "During the day I
have not time to sit down to eat bread except for a few minutes
at nine and five. I sit at my books, teach boys, labour with
my tools. One day a carpenter, another a blacksmith, another
a joiner, another a shipwright, or whatever is necessary. But
my chief and all-important work at present is the study of the
Duala language, the preparation of elementary books, the
translation of the Gospels, etc. This comes every day, and all
other things, such as necessary repairs or needful occupations,
are attended to for recreation."
He was passionately anxious to obtain a printing press, and
made many shifts to supply one. His inventiveness, aided by
a knowledge of iron work and engineering, enabled him to make
a matrix and to construct a rude press, but he was soon at a
standstill for lead to found type, and waited wearily for the
chance of obtaining it from a passing ship. In 1848 he asked
the Committee of the Society to devote a portion of his salary
to the purchase of books for the foundation of a good refer-
ence library.
In this year he moved over for a time to Clarence,
Fernando P6, partly to repair his health. Here he received his
first printing press. Another was also despatched at the same
time to Merrick's station at Bimbia, and native boys were being
taught to print. A sugar mill was afterwards sent out by a
supporter of the mission, Sir Morton Peto.
Summing up the results of Mission work in Fernando Po
and the Cameroons at the end of 1849, Saker mentions that
they had introduced the bread-fruit tree, pomegranate, mango,
avocado pear, and mammee apple, "fruits of great value, and
all suitable to the climate " (brought from the West Indies) ;
they distributed clothing to about twenty thousand persons, and
medical assistance to nearly the same number.
By September 1850 Saker had again taken up his abode in
King Akwa's town, and in 1851 he began to explore the slopes
of the Cameroons Mountain. On returning to the Duala towns
he had resolved to face and overcome the difficulty about the
white ants. These termites had destroyed most of the wattle
and daub and plank houses erected by the Mission. Bricks
seemed the only remedy. At the very beginning of 1852 he
THE CAMEROONS : 1845-87 35
recorded " a complete success in making both building bricks
and paving tiles." " For some weeks past my brick yard has
been in active operation. Ten thousand bricks are now ready,
and we are making two thousand a week." Native boys were
being sent to him for instruction in brick-making. Prior to
this success his efforts had been greeted with derision by the
natives, but they were now so impressed by the results of the
brick yard that from that day onwards — say, the 1st of January
1852 — the Duala steadily set their faces towards civilization.
The actual converts to Christianity were persecuted by their
countrymen, it is true, and prevented from engaging in the
ordinary avenues of trade. Saker advised them to " cultivate
more ground, raise and sell provisions, plant cotton, and
open new sources of trade. . . . Make bricks, and I will pay
you."
But the possession of bricks was of little avail without
mortar to cement them together. This was eventually obtained
by collecting large quantities of oyster shells and burning them
for lime. Though the quarrelling amongst the different factions
of the Duala people and between the adherents of the too
numerous chieftains still continued, the education of the Duala
people went on steadily from 1852 until in 1884 the Duala
banks of the Cameroons were in some respects far more like a
well-ordered British colony than parts of Sierra Leone or the
Gold Coast at the same period. Most of the young men of
the Duala towns could speak, read, and write in English, and
had a good knowledge of arithmetic. They were skilled car-
penters, brickmakers, printers, and agriculturists. It should be
added in justice that the Mission was cordially supported in its
efforts at mediation by the commanders of the British gunboats
and by various consuls, who beginning with the celebrated
Richard Burton succeeded one another as official repre-
sentatives of British law in these regions.
The work of the Mission was less fortunate in the Isubu
country to the north-west of the Cameroons estuary. The
people here were being rapidly exterminated by the witchcraft
craze which has done so much to destroy life all over negro Africa.
The negroes of primeval culture attribute most forms of death
not to natural causes but to occult, to the action of witchcraft.
The witch must be discovered and killed. " Doctors " freely
charge anyone against whom they or the chief may have a
grudge, and the accused must drink the poison water (a
decoction of a nut or of bark) to determine innocence or
guilt.
36 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
When the present writer was administering Nyasaland, the
population of the Angoni country was diminishing as from an
epidemic by the continual deaths resulting from witchcraft
accusations. So in the Bimbia peninsula during the middle
of the last century. 1 Saker writes : — " The means of existence
were failing ; the land ceased to be cultivated ; fishermen no
longer plied their calling, incessantly harassed as they were by
trials for witchcraft. The endless fighting cut off the supplies
of yams and maize from the interior. If one man toiled to
feed his family, his canoe was burnt and his home invaded
until the devastation was complete, and hunger pined in every
corner." Not only did famine ensue, but disease increased its
ravages, for failure to cultivate meant the growth of bush and
grass with increased harbourage for mosquitoes and the con-
sequent spread of malarial fever.
Although this cause of the disease was unknown to Saker,
he notes the correlation of the cessation of cultivation and
clearing away of the bush with the growth of malarial fever.
Consequently for a time the station at King William's town in
Bimbia was given up, though it was subsequently re-estab-
lished, only, however, to be finally abandoned for much the
same reasons in 1870.
In 1855 Saker was at last persuaded to take a holiday in
England, but he scarcely remained away more than three
months. By this time the steamers of the African Steamship
Company had begun to ply regularly along the West Coast of
Africa from Plymouth or Liverpool to Madeira, Tenerife, and
Sierra Leone down to the Cameroons and the Congo. This
was an extraordinary boon to missionaries as well as to the
increasing number of traders, as it obviated the dreary three
months' voyage out and home by way of the West Indies in a
sailing ship. 2
In 1858 Saker had to grapple with the situation in Fernando
Pd. The Spanish Government had withdrawn even the very
grudging permission accorded to Prince, Clarke, and Saker in
1846 for the carrying on of their form of worship by stealth.
1 Poison ordeals reduced the Bimbia population from an approximate 10,000 in
1845 to scarcely 200 in 1885. — H. H. J.
2 Nevertheless the West Indian apprenticeship through which West Africa
passed during the first half of the nineteenth century by reason of the sailing ships
having to use the Trade Wind route via the West Indies was of some service to this
ill-furnished part of the world, for it enabled Government officials and missionaries
to introduce from the West Indies into West Africa many useful trees and food plants.
In fact this was the second American colonization of Africa (so far as fauna and flora
were concerned), the first being due to the introduction by the Portuguese of Bra-
zilian animals and plants between the sixteenth and the early eighteenth centuries.
THE CAMEROONS: 1845-87 37
Henceforth — from 1858 onwards — there were to be no Baptist
missionaries, no Baptist congregations or chapels in Fernando
P6. All negroes were to conform to the Roman Catholic
faith. Consequently in that year — 1858 — Saker had decided
to transfer the English-speaking Protestant colony of Port
Clarence to a new territory on the mainland of the Cameroons.
A good many negroes, more or less of Sierra Leone origin,
declined to follow him, being too much attached to the soil of
Fernando P6 to care much about religious questions. But those
families who decided to leave were established along the shores
of Ambas Bay on a territory purchased by the Mission from
the Bakwiri and Isubu native chiefs, mostly from King William
of Bimbia. A township was founded, laid out, and christened
Victoria. It was intended, indeed, by the Baptist Mission to
create an imitation of Liberia on the shores of Ambas Bay, a
nucleus of similar free communities of negroes, but curiously
enough, this project never succeeded. The vigorous work of
the Baptist Missionary Society was carried on either in the
Duala country along the Cameroons estuary or up the Mungo
River east of the Cameroons Mountain.
The scenery of Victoria was of ravishing beauty (the
present writer resided at intervals on Mondole Island in face of
this settlement for three years, from 1885 to 1888). The soil
was productive, fish was abundant in the waters of Ambas Bay,
but the negro colony of West Indian or ex-slave origin lan-
guished inert for nearly thirty years until Germany acquired
this last British foothold in the Cameroons in 1887. The
people were quiet and law-abiding, got on well with the
indigenes, but they were slothful, and rather inclined to
drunkenness. Indeed, to be plain-spoken, the Baptist Mission
throughout made a poor success in its devoted attempts to
repatriate the Americanized negro, or even to educate the
ex-slave. They only forged ahead with abundant success
when dealing with native populations in a state of independence.
In fact, it has been one of the undoubtedly bad results of
the slave trade that it has not only caused negroes to be
expatriated, snapping their family ties and all connection with
their fatherland, but it has in the first generation made the
same people feckless, craven, hopeless, immoral, broken-spirited,
with little more ambition than a satisfaction of animal desires.
The descendants of the slave parents were often well-educated,
upright, decent people ; but they had become so markedly im-
pressed with the European culture of America, so accustomed in
physique to the American climate and American comforts, that
38 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
they wilted and lost heart and energy when transplanted to the
unhealthy climate and comfortless savagery of West Africa.
America had been the cause of their parents' slavery, but
America was to them what Spain will always be to the
Mediterranean Jew and Natal to the native of Southern India
— a new fatherland infinitely dearer than the continent of their
miserable past and present.
In 1862 the work of the Baptist Mission in the Cameroons
attracted a visit from Richard Burton, who in the preceding
year had been appointed (as a not very adequate reward for his
discovery of Lake Tanganyika) British Consul for Fernando P6
and the Bights of Biafra and Benin. 1 Burton had been pre-
ceded as a Cameroons explorer by a celebrated botanist, Gustav
Mann, a member of the British Niger Expedition, detailed by
Sir William Hooker for the examination of the mountain flora
of Fernando P6 and the Cameroons. 2 Burton wished more
especially to ascend the Cameroons Mountain to its highest
summit, and Mann had prepared the way for this ascent by
discovering sources of water supply (water, strange to say, is
very deficient on the upper Cameroons), and had founded base
camps from which the exploration of the higher craters might
be made. Merrick, the Baptist missionary of Bimbia, had
attempted to ascend Cameroons Mountain in 1847, but had not
climbed higher than about 9,200 feet. The distance from
Ambas Bay to the summit is about fourteen miles, but Merrick
suffered greatly from the lack of water, and had to return. The
Bakwiri and Buea natives along the southern slopes of the
mountain were not very well disposed towards these explora-
tions. Merrick had died in 1849, and Saker's presence on and
around the mountain was necessary to pacify the natives and
compose quarrels which had arisen between them and Mr. Mann
or the followers of Captain Burton. Saker accompanied Burton
on his ascent of the mountain, another member of the party,
besides Mr. Mann, being Senor Calvo, the Spanish Judge of
Fernando P6 ; so that in the first ascent of the highest point in
the whole of West Africa England, Germany, and Spain were
represented. Saker carried out hypsometrical observations of his
own which have been a useful check on those of Captain Burton
and of other explorers in determining the height of Victoria Peak.
1 Earlier in the nineteenth century this post (then called Superintendent of Fer-
nando P6) had been held by another African explorer, Major Denham, who had
accompanied Clapperton to Lake Chad.
2 This remarkable pioneer of science in Western Equatorial Africa is still living,
at Munich, after many years of service under the British Government, not only in
West Africa, but in the Indian Forest Department.
l6. THE CAMEROONS MOUNTAINS AND THE LOCATION OF THE AMBAS BAY SETTLEMENT OF VICTORIA : SEEN FROM
MONDOLE ISLAND
From a painting by Sir Harry Johnston.
THE CAMEROONS: 1845-87 41
In the period between 1863 and 1869 some trouble came
into Saker's life, not only through constant deaths and sickness
amongst the missionaries or their wives and children, but
through friction with some of his colleagues. This arose over
two divergent opinions as to the main object of Mission work
in the Cameroons. The younger members of the Mission —
men recently arrived from England — complained that Saker's
work lacked "spirituality" : that he devoted his life so enthusi-
astically to printing, translating, language study, brick-making,
carpentry, agriculture, and secular instruction that very little time
was left for preaching and theology. At last, at the close of 1869,
the home Committee decided to despatch Dr. E, B. Underhill
to report on the almost open quarrel which had arisen between
Saker and the younger missionaries. Dr. Underhill unfortun-
ately lost his wife (who accompanied him) from over-exposure to
the sun at the close of his stay on the Cameroons River and
after a somewhat exhausting tour round all the mission stations;
but his report was a triumphant vindication of Saker's methods.
At this distance of time it is not necessary to take up the
cudgels on Saker's behalf. The permanent civilization he intro-
duced into the Cameroons is there as a witness to his life's
work as well as the widespread and practically useful education
he left amongst the Duala people. As to the theology which
was deemed so precious in 1868, it is doubtful whether it would
have been apprehended or cared for by the negroes in their
then condition, and the discussion of dogmatic questions would
certainly not have provided their idle hands with useful, steady-
ing work.
In 1874, Saker after a holiday in England returned to the
Cameroons for his last sojourn, and the Baptist Mission entered
on a new, and what might have been but for German interven-
tion, a most successful development. George Grenfell accom-
panied the veteran missionary, and in 1876 they were joined by
Thomas Comber, destined like Grenfell to be one of the great
pioneers on the Congo.
Comber also ascended the Cameroons Mountain, and made
an important journey of exploration (probably the first per-
formed by any European) round the Bomboko country to the
land of the Bakundu and the western affluents of the Mungo
River north of the great Cameroons volcano. He discovered
and named little Lake Rickards, and the more important sheet
of water Barombi ba Koto : both of them crater lakes, the
last named possessing an island in the middle which was the
home of thousands of grey parrots. The parrots flew over to
42 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
the mainland every morning to feed on the crops and the wild
fruits and returned in screaming flocks every evening to roost
with security on the island trees. Comber subsequently as-
cended the Mungo River for sixty miles above its confluence
with the Cameroons estuary and laid the foundations of a
mission station in the
Bakundu country
which was afterwards
occupied by the Rev.
Thomas Lewis.
Alfred Saker left
the Cameroons finally
at the end of 1876,
and died at Peckham
in March 1880. His
daughter, Miss Emily
Saker, has done much
to edit and amplify
his remarkable lingu-
istic work in theDuala
language. His son-
in-law, the late Rev.
Quentin Thomson —
long time a worker
in the Cameroons
— compiled under
Saker's directions a
vocabulary of the
Bakwiri language at
Cameroons Moun-
tain. Much else of
Saker's researches
into Cameroons lan-
guages remained in
manuscript in the
Mission library at
Akwa town and was
destroyed (accidentally of course) when the Germans burnt the
Mission buildings in their bombardment of 1884.
As to outside appreciation of his life's work in the
Cameroons, Livingstone wrote of him in the later 'sixties of the
last century : " Take it all in all, specially having regard to its
many-sided character, the work of Alfred Saker at Cameroons
and Victoria is, in my judgment, the most remarkable on the
17. ALFRED SAKER
From a photograph taken about 1873,
THE CAMEROONS: 1845-87 43
African coast." Winwood Reade somewhat later recorded this
further appreciation : —
" I do not at all understand how the changes at Cameroons and
Victoria have been brought about. Old sanguinary customs have to a
large extent been abolished ; witchcraft hides itself in the forest ; the
fetish superstition of the people is derided by old and young, and
well-built houses are springing up on every hand. It is really marvel-
lous to mark the change that has taken place in the natives in a few
years only. From actual cannibals many have become honest, in-
telligent, well-skilled artisans. An elementary literature has been
established, and the whole Bible translated into their own tongue,
hitherto an unwritten one. There must be surely something abnormal
about this."
George Grenfell began his missionary exploration of these
regions in 1875. By 1878 (and a short visit in 1880) he had
surveyed and mapped a good deal of the southern aspect of
the Cameroons Mountain, had ascended the Mungo River, the
Yabiang or Abo, the Wuri or main Cameroons River, and the
Lungasi (Dibamba) River. 1 Most important of all, however,
was his discovery in its lower course of the Edea River (as
he called it), that stream which is now known by the name
of Sanaga. 2 This is by far the longest and most important
river which is part of the Cameroons system. Its main
course enters the sea on either side of Malimba Island indepen-
dently of the Cameroons estuary ; but with this estuary or
delta it is also connected by the Kwakwa branch, so that it
may be held legitimately to be one of the Cameroons rivers,
and no doubt its great volume of water has in past times
entered the Cameroons estuary by a more direct course, and
has played an important part in the formation of that consider-
able area of brackish mangrove swamps.
Grenfell appears to have ascended the highest summits of
the Cameroons Mountain (Mongo ma Loba) in 1878. But
though he explored the Wuri (Cameroons) River to the
country of Budiman (whither the present writer went a few
years later), and also its Dibombe affluent, he does not seem to
have observed the fantastic Kupe-Manenguba range, so strik-
ing a feature on the north-eastern horizon in clear weather,
1 When Grenfell went to the Lungasi River in 1877 the chief's medicine man
brought a live turtle and made the party swear they had come to do no one any
harm. They had to take this oath by knocking the shell of the turtle with their
knuckles and calling down death on themselves if they defaulted.
2 Sometimes spelt Sannaga or Sananga. The word seems to be connected with
a common Bantu root for river or island — Sanga.
44 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
with peaks which attain altitudes of nine and ten thousand
feet.
He refers repeatedly to the difficulty of penetrating up the
various rivers farther than the first rapids, owing to the
jealousy with which the coast natives regarded any attempts
on the part of Europeans to reach the tribes behind them, for
whom they acted in commerce as middlemen. He travelled
however to the country of Endokoko (up the Wuri) and there
came into contact with representatives of the interior tribes,
who in their trading operations had travelled far enough to the
j ^ - x - 'V - y ' s '
iS. THE MANENGUBA MOUNTAINS, NORTH-WEST OF CAMEROONS RIVER,
AS OBSERVED BY THE AUTHOR IN l836
north-east to come in contact with Hausa traders, " Muham-
madan people riding on donkeys, clothed like Arabs," and
believed by Grenfell himself to be Arabs ; though it is highly
improbable that any pure-blooded Arab has penetrated so far
into Equatorial West Africa as the hinterland of the Cameroons.
Hausas, and possibly a Fula raider or two, had already brought
within their trading and raiding influence the semi-Bantu
regions lying between the watershed of the Cameroons estuary
and that of the upper Benue.
Let us try to see the Cameroons region as Grenfell saw it
and described it in his communications to the Royal Geo-
graphical Society and in private letters. Arriving from Europe,
and skirting the West Coast of Africa, the traveller bound for
THE CAMEROONS: 1845-87
45
ii
^fea^^^yiMSB roli
the Cameroons has noticed mountains of two to three thousand
feet rising straight up from the sea coast in parts of French
Guinea, and notably in the Sierra Leone peninsula. After that
the coast gradually sinks lower and lower, till along the Ivory
Coast it is little more than a rim of tall trees lining the shores
of lagoons. In the western part of the Gold Coast low hills
appear and break
the monotony of
the outline, but
from the eastern
part of the Gold
Coast rioht round
the Niger Delta
the littoral is so
flat that were it
not for occasional
tall trees the land
would be scarcely
discernible until
the ship had
grounded. But
when you have
passed the Niger
Delta, the en-
trance to the Old
Calabar River,
and the estuary of
the Rio del Rey,
you begin to be
awareinthesouth-
east of high land.
Dim blue moun-
tain peaks show
themselves above
a shore line of
lofty forest which is no longer swamp. Away to the south, the
pyramid of the Fernando P6 Mountain rises above the sea
horizon, and opposite to it is the great ridge of the Cameroons
soaring to an altitude of 13,370 feet. On a clear day all the
detail of this volcanic range can be scanned through a field-
glass. The eye travels up through the dense forest belt, which
ends at from eight to nine thousand feet, to a bare grassy
region studded with small craters. The loftiest of these craters
and the ridge from which it rises are sometimes streaked with
19. THE LITTLE CAMEROONS PEAK
46 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
snow, though the snow soon melts under the rays of the
equatorial sun. An object that is disproportionately striking is
the Little Cameroons peak, the Mongo ma Etinde of the
natives — a black, forested cone, which rises to about 5,800
feet from the shore on the north-western flanks of the great
mountain. This is also an extinct crater. After a heavy
rain-storm it is often beautifully draped with white clouds
in the manner depicted in the illustration, which was drawn
by the present writer from the deck of a steamer. At the
base of this peak, a little distance from the shore, is a rock,
snow-white with birds' guano. This, together with Ambas and
Mondole Islands, is the remains of a rocky semicircle round
Ambas Bay which is possibly the sunken rim of an ancient
crater.
[Mondole is the name given to a pretty little island in
Ambas Bay on which the present writer once built a Vice-
Consulate. Its steep slopes are densely forested, and from its
summit a magnificent comprehensive view of the Cameroons
range can be obtained.]
On the continental shore of Ambas Bay is the neat-look-
ing town of Victoria, at which it was customary for either
Grenfell or his colleagues to reside from time to time.
From Victoria — in the days of which I am writing — all
explorers like Grenfell started to make their ascent of the
Cameroons High Peak. The path led first of all through some
of the grandest tropical forest in the world, trees rising to two
and three hundred feet in height, their trunks garlanded with
parasitic arums and orchids. Huge rubber lianas hung in loops
and twisted coils upon the limbs of the giant trees. The present
writer has rarely seen a parallel in magnificence to these forests
of Ambas Bay. In the days when this region was rarely pene-
trated by a European explorer they were tenanted by troops of
bold chimpanzees, a little inclined to resent the intrusion of
man. The native settlements of the Bakwiri tribe were more
confined to the vicinity of the seashore, except on the eastern
flanks of the mountain in the direction of the Mungo River,
where the powerful native confederacy of Buea had to some
extent abated the forest. Their villages and plantations exten-
ded up the flanks of the mountain to an altitude of 4,000 feet.
Although this magnificent forest behind the settlement of Vic-
toria was drenched with moisture from the equatorial rains, it
was not well supplied with running streams; in fact, one charac-
teristic of the Cameroons volcanic range is paucity of running
water, no doubt owing to the porous nature of the volcanic soil.
THE CAMEROONS: 1845-87
47
Consequently an ascent of the mountain was apt to be a thirsty
proceeding.
At about 4,000 feet one entered the region of tree-ferns,
and this scenery is accurately depicted in my drawing of "Fern
Gate." At about 7,350 feet the guide halted before a welcome
spring of fresh water, named after its discoverer, the botanist
Mann. 1
Above this point, at about 7,500 feet, the vegetation alters
its aspect. Bam-
boos abound, and
many gaudy
flowering plants
more characteris-
tic of Abyssinia,
the East African
highlands, and
even Europe. At
about 9,000 feet
one leaves the
forest altogether,
to enter on an
open country of
grass, everlasting
flowers, sun-
flowers, senecios,
hound's -tongue,
clover, violets^
heather, St. John's
wort, chervil, and
other "Alpine"
vegetation. This
is growing a -
mongst the grey
scoriae.
These scoriae are like the frozen froth (in purplish-grey) of
the lava streams, now solidified into immobility, but which at
20. TREE-FERNS ON THE CAMEROONS MOUNTAIN
(The pass named by Burton " Fern Gate.")
1 " A little runnel of pure cold water, issuing from peaty earth, embowered in blue
flowers, and surrounded by nettles." (Alfred Saker.) Mann puts the altitude at
7,800, but Grenfell and the present writer both at 7,350.
" It was held by common consent to be an admirable spot for a sanatorium or
a colony. . . . Captain Burton exclaimed, ' Where can a Lebanon be found equal to
the beautiful, majestic Cameroons ?"' " Here" (says Saker) " we had a glorious sky,
a dry air, in fact an English home." (Alfred Saker.)
It is astonishing and inexplicable that the practical Germans have done nothing
with such a hill station.
48 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
some period, probably not very distant, must have poured forth
from the craters in a boiling flood, down through many thou-
sand feet of descent till they were choked and lost in the tropical
forest belt, or even till they were cooled and turned to stone by
contact with the sea. The great ridge of the mountain, which
extends some forty miles from south-west to north-east, is
pimpled with almost innumerable craters, large and small. The
loftiest, and one of the largest, is that known as the High Peak
(Burton's Mount Victoria), now computed to be about 13,370
feet in altitude. The sides of this High Peak are gorgeous in
colouring. A portion of the western slope is purple-black
with fine cinders, still naked of vegetation ; but elsewhere the
slopes are tapestried and carpeted with dense moss of golden-
yellow, pale straw-colour, yellow-green, crimson, purple, and
olive.
In and out of the craters in this grassy region above the
forest wander — or used to wander in the days when Grenfell and
the present writer separately explored these regions — herds of
the Bongo tragelaph and of the large West African bush-buck,
also perhaps a water-buck (Codus). Natives of the Bakwiri and
Buea tribes would ascend to these regions for hunting purposes,
and further passed in a regular trade route (reaching to an alti-
tude of about 10,000 feet) over the main riclge of the mountain
to markets in the north, in the countries on the verge of the
Erik or Old Calabar region.
From the High Peak itself and from other points on the
central ridge magnificent views in clear weather could be
obtained, " a glorious, map-like picture, embracing river, sea,
and land," as Grenfell writes in 18S2. He also makes frequent
allusions to the magnificent cascade known as the Thomson 1
Falls near Boanda, at an altitude of 1,800 feet. But this cas-
cade when visited by the present writer in the dry season was
disappointing. During the height of the rains a large volume
of water falls some fifty feet with a roar that can be heard at a
distance of a mile.
The transition in point of scenery and climate from the
Cameroons Mountain (with its outlying spur of Bimbia) to the
vast mangrove swamps of the Cameroons estuary is very
abrupt. This estuary, however, offers an excellent, capacious
harbour to vessels of almost any size. After passing Point
1 Named after George Thomson, an Englishman of independent means, who
with his wife settled on the upland country behind Victoria, and though not belong-
ing to the Mission worked with it to make the Ambas Bay settlement prosperous.
Mr. Thomson attempted to found a sanatorium high up on the Cameroons.
/■■
£
21. MOUNT VICTORIA, THE HIGH PEAK OF THE CAMEROONS, ABOUT
13,370 FEET IN ALTITUDE. SKETCHED BY THE AUTHOR IN 1886
In the foreground is a great "stream" of lava and scoria?.
I. E
THE CAMEROONS: 1845-87 51
Suellaba, the land retreats for a time in all directions, and one
appears to be steaming through a vast lake till the main channel
of the Cameroons River is entered off the Duala shore. Here
is situated the administrative capital of the whole German
colony of the Cameroons, now known as the town of Duala.
In Grenfell's time the Duala bank of firm red clay (opposite to
which were extensive mangrove swamps) was divided into a
number of independent native settlements, ruled by several
" kings." The most important of these was Bell Town, the
appanage of that dynasty of Duala kings whose native name
of Mbeli or Mbela had been corrupted by the English traders
into Bell. I give an illustration of Bell Town beach, with the
trading hulks and shore settlements, as it was in 1886, just after
the German annexation had taken place.
The swamps above and below the Duala shore are fre-
quently rendered beautiful by the enormous Lissochilus orchids
(L. giganteus). The actual flower-spike of this species is some-
times three feet in length from the topmost bud to the lowest
blossom, and the flowers themselves are of red-purple with a
golden centre. Behind these splendid orchids — six to ten feet
in height from the water's edge — is a fantastic background of
screw-pine or Pandanus, or the willow-like foliage of the man-
grove with its grey branches and aerial roots. At the conflu-
ence of the River Yabiang (Abo) with the Wuri stream,
mangrove and Pandanus give way completely to the tropical
forest of firm land. Then the forest again retreats from the
riverside, and where the land is not covered with native planta-
tions it is thickly overgrown with jungle reeds. .These reed
beds are the haunts of innumerable little water-rails of glossy
plumage, chiefly iridescent blue or dark, metallic, blackish-
green, with red feet and beaks. These remarkably beautiful
little birds are miniature editions of the large blue gallinules of
tropical Africa. They are frequently caught in snares by the
Duala boys and kept in cages as pets.
Grenfell, as already related, ascended the main stream
(Wuri) of the Cameroons as far as the Budiman country and
the first cataracts of Endokoko. Here his further progress was
opposed by the natives, and the same thing happened in regard
to the exploration of the Mungo River, where he was less
successful than Comber. In these river journeys Grenfell was
sometimes allowed to borrow the steam launches sent out for
the use of British and German trading firms or the Helen Saker
of the Baptist Mission. It was by means of a steam launch
only that he succeeded in reaching the Edea (Sanaga) River by
52 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
way of the Kwakwa Creek. The jealous natives would have
opposed the passage of ordinary canoes.
Grenfell was succeeded as an explorer of the Mungo River
by his colleague, the Rev. Thos. Lewis, 1 and by the Polish
traveller, Stefan Rogozinski. Rogozinski managed to appease
the natives of the upper Mungo (he discovered the lake
Barombi ba Mbu), but his expedition was actually stopped and
broken up by the attacks of elephants. In those days there
were regions to the north of the Cameroons Mountain (as I can
state from personal experience) actually dominated either by
chimpanzees or elephants, 2 tracts of forest in which either the
chimpanzees or the elephants were so numerous and so hostile
to human invasion that they attacked individuals or small
companies of men who attempted to make their way through the
woodland.
During the rainy season between April and October the
elephants were wont to pass in enormous numbers from the in-
undated swamps and morasses to the hill country of Bakundu.
It might occur in a single night that a herd of elephants trampled
clown or otherwise destroyed the cultivated food crops belonging
to a whole tribe. " They do not (writes George Allan 3 )
deliberately attack the natives, but if interfered with, they
knock them down and trample them to death."
In the drier season of the year they resorted to mud pools
near rivers and swamps, where they rolled about until they
caked their hides with a sufficient coating of mud to serve as a
protection against the elephant fly, an insect which lays its eggs
in their hides, and sometimes inflicts on them serious pain and
disease. At night, when the flies retired to rest, the elephants
made for great rivers, in which they bathed themselves and
swam about until the mud coating was washed off. To such an
extent at this season did they use the waterways that the natives
refused to travel at night by boat or canoe owing to the attacks
on them which the elephants would make out of sheer mischief.
At the time Mr. Allan wrote (1885) the natives usually obtained
their ivory from the elephants that became entangled in bogs
1 And also by C. H. Richardson, who wrote an essay on the Bakundu language.
2 To the north-west of the Cameroons Mountains the present writer once stayed
in a village founded by the Efik people from Old Calabar, who with the aid of a
better type of trade gun had not only kept the elephants at bay, but had obtained the
mastery over them. The broad street of die town was most picturesquely decorated
on either side with an orderly array of enormous elephant skulls.
3 George Allan, F.R.G.S., several times quoted, was a trader and medical practi-
tioner, who resided in a hulk on the Cameroons from 1880 to 1889. He worked
cordially with the Baptist missionaries, and rendered great services gratuitously to all
Europeans and natives needing medical advice.
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THE CAMEROONS: 1845-87 55
and marshes ; for the elephants of the Cameroons interior were
so wily and savage that the native who attempted to kill them
with the trade guns of that period or with lances or poisoned
arrows was as likely as not killed in the attempt. The present
writer when he ascended the Cameroons River in 1886 was
told by the Wuri and Bonken people that large numbers of
elephants became entombed in the treacherous bogs of the
Cameroons River valley. They were constantly searching after
places in which to wallow in the mud, and would sometimes
plunge into a bog too deep and tenacious. Here they were
either suffocated, or could be safely attacked by the natives
when abandoned by their companions. The ground which
might be too soft for the passage of an elephant would still
afford a firm footing for men.
When Grenfell explored the Lungasi or Dibamba River
some distance to the east, he found the people living in a very
primitive condition, prevented as they themselves were by the
middlemen of the Cameroons estuary from trading directly with
the Europeans. He notes that the Lungasi or Lungahi 1 negroes
at that time went absolutely naked. Absolute nudity in man or
woman is far rarer at the present day in all the west coast regions
of Africa than it is in the east-central portions of the continent
(the valley of the White Nile, the eastern part of the Victoria
Nyanza, Masailand, North Nyasa, and north-central Zambezia).
The French explorer Binger in all his extensive travels in the
western basin of the Niger behind Liberia and the Gold Coast
only found absolute nudity prevailing amongst the Bobo-Fing
in a district far removed in those days either from coast influ-
ence or from Muhammadan conquest. Nudity in both sexes,
however, still lingered in the Efik district east of the Niger Delta
in the 'eighties of the last century, and also in those countries
verging on the Cameroons estuary. Further information on
this point is given in chapter xxn.
Since the early 'sixties a Court of Equity has been estab-
lished in the Cameroons River, over which the British Consul
generally presided. This Court was attended by the mis-
sionaries, merchants, and principal native chiefs, and ad-
ministered rough justice as between natives and Europeans.
But the wranglings amongst the Duala chiefs, interspersed
with outbreaks of civil war, continued down to the year 1880,
though after a bad outbreak in 1872 serious fighting had ceased.
1 A section of the great tribe of Bakoko or Mvele, a people said to be related
linguistically and otherwise to the Fanwe or " Fans." The contiguous Bapiele are
reddish-skinned Pygmies.
56 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
But when the revival of European interest in West Africa
followed Stanley's and De Brazza's exploits in Congoland both
Portugal and France began to turn their eyes towards the
unoccupied Cameroons. The Duala chiefs to avert any other
fate began to decide in favour of British protection or annexa-
tion as the only means of securing law and order in their
country. A new Consul had arrived on the scene — Edward
Hyde Hewett — and he found all this region of the Oil Rivers,
„^„ m ,,^ ^ : ^ ^ _ _^ m _ _____ , from the Lagos
colony on the west
to the French Ga-
boon on the south-
east, ripe for in-
clusion within the
British Empire.
Captain Goldie
Taubman had been
uniting the British
companies on the
Niger and buying
out the French,
building up, in fact,
what was to become
later on the Royal
Niger Company. A
number of associated
firms of Liverpool
and Manchester
were carrying on a
wonderfully pros-
perous trade in Old
Calabar, the Niger
Delta, and the Came-
roons; while the work of the Church Missionary Society (Bonny),
the United Presbyterian Mission (Old Calabar), and the Baptist
Mission (Cameroons) had spread far and wide a knowledge of the
English language. In 1882 the Duala chiefs tendered a formal
request for annexation to the British Empire, a request which
was endorsed by the German as well as by the British mer-
chants in the Cameroons. The natives pressed for the im-
mediate hoisting of the British flag in November 1882. But
the Consul would not take this responsibility on himself without
reference to the Foreign Office. He again returned to the
Cameroons in April 1883, but delivered no decisive answer.
23. KING "BELL" OF CAMEROONS: TAKEN ABOUT 1874
24. LISSOCHILUS ORCHIDS, TEN TO FIFTEEN FEET HIGH, GROWING ON
THE CAMEROONS RIVER
THE CAMEROONS: 1845-87
59
In 1883 King Akwa had a quarrel with the German house of
Woermann. The question of British annexation dragged on
till the early summer of 1884. Meantime the Woermann firm
had made direct proposals to King Bell to sell a portion of his
territory to Germany and accept a German Protectorate.
Consul Hewett by some chance still delayed his arrival, though
it was known by now that he was charged with full powers to
annex the Cameroons on behalf of Great Britain. Curiously
enough, no dread was entertained of German intentions ; it
was France who was openly moving in the direction of the
Cameroons coast. On July 8 a British gunboat arrived to
•>.
.-■ ? $.'.
. .. M
25. THE DUALA SHORE ("BELL TOWN BEACH") IN 1907
assure the people that Consul Hewett would be there within
a week. The seven days elapsed, but he did not come. On
the 11th of July arrived the celebrated German explorer and
Commissioner, Dr. Nachtigal, in the German gunboat Mowe.
On the following day, July 12, King Bell signed a treaty with
Dr. Nachtigal, by the provisions of which the Cameroons
from Bimbia on the north to Batanga on the south were
annexed to the German Empire. So far as native rights went,
the treaty was a farce, since King Bell merely owned six
square miles on the south coast of the Cameroons estuary ;
but of course with the power of Germany behind it this treaty
was eventually extended into a Protectorate reaching as far as
Lake Chad.
60 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Four days after the treaty was signed, Consul Hewett
arrived, to find the German flag flying from King Bell's head-
quarters. On the 25th of July a French gunboat arrived, also
with the intention of annexing the Cameroons, but withdrew
on finding that the Germans had accomplished the act. Consul
Hewett then proceeded to hoist the British flag over all the
Cameroons coast between Bimbia and the Rio del Rey, and as
much of the hinterland of the Cameroons behind Kino- Bell's
26. THE REMAINING BAPTIST MISSION STATION AT SOPO, IN THE CAMEROONS
(Under native missionaries.)
territory as was not actually covered by the German flag. The
British headquarters in this region was practically transferred
to Victoria, Ambas Bay, a settlement which was annexed out
and out, whereas much of the Cameroons territory was merely
taken under British protection.
By agreements entered into between the two Governments
during the next three years, the British flag disappeared en-
tirely from the Cameroons region, Ambas Bay (the govern-
ment of which was administered by the present writer from
1885 to 1887) being the last portion to be handed over to
German rule.
THE CAMEROONS: 1845-87 61
In a native rising which took place soon after King Bell's
action was discovered (for inasmuch as this chieftain only
exercised authority over six square miles, his brother chiefs
strongly objected to their territories being- sold over their
heads) the Germans directed their guns on King Akwa's town,
where stood the principal buildings of the Baptist Mission.
Some of these were shattered and ruined. Others were occu-
pied as the headquarters of the German Government.
In a manner which history will describe as unnecessarily
brutal, the Baptist missionaries were practically expelled from
"^l
?m
9
wm'w**
£ - - : '^m^%S^^mM
27. THE HIGHEST SUMMIT OF THE CAMEROONS
(Sketched by the present writer in 1886.)
the Cameroons by the German authorities, owing to their great
influence over the people. In spite of all protests from the
British Government, and a popular misconception to the
opposite effect, Germany never gave one penny of compen-
sation to the Baptist Mission for its vested rights in land and
buildings in the Cameroons. She did not pay even for the
settlement of Ambas Bay, originally purchased from the natives
by the Baptist Mission and annexed by Germany in 1887.
Such of the land and buildings as were not required by the
German Government for its own use at Victoria were pur-
chased from the English Baptists by the Basel Missionary
Society of Switzerland for ,£2,000. All these events occurred
twenty years ago, and the last thing the present writer desires
62 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
is to reawaken old animosities. He wishes, however, in re-
cording all these facts to point out that at no time did the
Baptist Missionary Society embarrass the policy of the British
Government, or attempt to cause bad blood between England
and Germany by calling attention to the really outrageous
treatment they received, or by clamouring that property ac-
quired on their part by much expenditure of money and
improved by many years of hard manual labour had been taken
from them for ever without any excuse or compensation.
With the transference to Germany of Ambas Bay in 1887
the history of the Baptist Mission in the Cameroons came to
a close ; but the native church founded by the British and West
Indian missionaries still exists, and receives a kindly support
at the hands of the German and Swiss missionaries who have
replaced the colleagues of Alfred Saker.
CHAPTER IV
MODERN MISSIONARY PIONEERS IN CONGOLAND
IN the spring of 1877 a generous supporter of the Baptist
Mission and of other philanthropic, disinterested work in
Africa — Mr. Robert Arthington of Leeds 1 — had guessed
prophetically at the importance of the Congo River before the
results of Stanley's great exploring journey were known in the
autumn of 1877. No doubt Mr. Arthington, in announcing in
his letter to the Baptist Mission of May 14 1877 that the
Congo and Livingstone's Lualaba were one, was influenced
by the guess made in that direction by the explorer Cameron.
At any rate he was certainly in advance of local opinion in
Liverpool, Manchester, and Glasgow at that date, which took
no interest whatever in the Congo, and derided any possibili-
ties that might arise from its development. As the result of
his generous donation to the funds of the Mission, two of the
more active missionaries in the Cameroons — George Grenfell
and Thomas J. Comber — were despatched to the Lower Congo
to reconnoitre (January-February 1878), and returned for more
elaborate exploration five months afterwards, resolving to
penetrate the ancient kingdom of Kongo as far as its capital
of San Salvador, and thence to push inland towards the un-
known. Their first flying visit was scarcely over than there
arrived the pioneers of an undenominational mission (Living-
stone Inland Mission) started by Dr. Grattan Guinness of
Harley House, Bow. This institution settled first at Pala-
bala on the heights east of Matadi. Dr. Grattan Guinness
in London and Mr. Henry Craven on the Congo produced,
after some three years' study (assisted by Congo natives sent
to England), the first good grammars and dictionaries of the
Kishi- Kongo tongue, linguistic work which held the field until
1 Mr. Arthington by his donations in 1880 to the Liberian Republic enabled that
State to found the industrial colony now called Arthington, near the St. Paul's River,
in western Liberia. He died in 1894, leaving large donations in trust for British
missionary societies.
63
64 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
the masterly, encyclopaedic studies of this important language
published by Holman Bentley in 1886-7. One of the earlier
recruits of the Harley House Mission was the celebrated
Dr. A. Sims (of Birmingham), a medical missionary who is
still serving on
the Congo, who
has compiled
grammars and
vocabularies of
several Upper
Conor) languages,
and has rendered
medical service of
inestimable value
for twenty-seven
years to some
thousands of
Europeans and
countless negroes.
Grenfell and
Comber reached
the mouth of the
Congo f o r the
second time on
June 28 1878,
and by the help
of the great Dutch
trading house
with its stations
at Banana and
Boma, and a cer-
tain John Scott, 1
they ascended the
river to a place
called Musuko or Nsuku, some forty miles above Boma, in the
narrow part of the Congo. On August 8 1878 they reached San
Salvador without any difficulty, and were very well received by
the King, whose official title was Ntolela, Ntinu a Lukeni,
Dom Pedro V. Before he was placed on the throne in 1857
by Portuguese arms he was Elelo, " Marquis " of Katende.
pat f^MMM
Wilvmm
28. BAOBAB TREE AT SAN SALVADOR, SHOWING INITIALS
OF LIEUT. GRANDY, 1 873, AND OF COMBER AND
GRENFELL CARVED IN 1878
(Photo by Rev. H. Ross Phillips.)
1 This John Scott is referred to in Holman Bentley's interesting work, Pioneering
on the Congo. He was in reality a St. Helena half-caste married to a Spanish wife, a
noted slave-trader even as late as the 'seventies. Having no use on one occasion for
about forty slaves, he fastened them all to a heavy chain and drowned them in the
MISSIONARY PIONEERS IN CONGOLAND 65
By his subjects he was usually referred to as "Ntinu n'Ekongo,"
equivalent to " King of Congoland." 1
In the town of San Salvador was noticed a great baobab
tree on which Lieutenant Grandy of the 1872-4 Livingstone
Expedition had cut his initials. Grenfell and Comber added
theirs with the date 1878. I believe the tree is still standing.
From San Salvador they resolved to proceed north-eastwards
to the Makuta country on their overland journey to Stanley
II
Itililitti^iipSSl
29. TUNGWA, REACHED BY GRENFELL AND COMBER IN it
(Here Comber was wounded by a bullet in 1880.)
Pool, and managed to secure the native guide who had accom-
panied Grandy in 1873. The two missionaries reached the
principal Makuta town, Tungwa, and, unlike Grandy, were per-
Congo, just close to his main factory. Naturally, these and other circumstances were
not known to the Baptist missionaries when they first reached the Congo. John
Scott, who had frequently run into the bush to escape unwelcome visits from British
men-of-war, endeavoured to regain a respectable reputation by offering cordial assis-
tance to the first British missionaries in these regions. After Stanley's return to the
Congo in 1879, Scott went to Spain, and eventually died there.
The Dutch trading house at the mouth of the Congo, under whose auspices the
Baptist Mission long carried on its transport on the Lower Congo, was established at
Banana Point in 1869 on land bought from the French company, Regis et Cie. It
was first known as the Afrikaansche Handels-Vereeniging, but in 1879 got into
financial difficulties, and was reconstructed as the Nieuwe Afrikaansche Handels Ven-
nootschap. Grenfell always refers to it as the A. H. V., the- initials of the original
title.
1 The Rev. T. Lewis states that Elelo is a corruption of El-Rey (the King) and
means more than " marquis."
66 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
mitted to enter it and to have an audience of the chief of
Tungwa, Sengele.
" It was with no ordinary feelings of gladness and thankfulness "
(writes Comber in 1878) "that we looked down into the largest and
prettiest town we had seen in the district. . . . An irregular cluster of
some 200 houses, some of them but half revealed amongst the beautiful
foliage of trimly-kept trees — planted by the natives themselves as
ornaments to their town — lay in the valley at our feet. ... I had
never before seen a designedly pretty town in Africa, and was scarcely
prepared for so much taste and neatness. The streets and squares
were well kept and are probably frequently swept Regular avenues
and fences of a tree bearing a pretty purple and white flower divided
off the town. . . . The River Lulewa winds round the east and south."
Following their guide Matoko, Comber and Grenfell were
escorted by about a hundred townsmen into the centre of
Tungwa, while the drums beat a deafening welcome.
" The people were in a great state of excited curiosity . . . gazing
at us with that intense wondering gaze I had before encountered in
interior Cameroons. One fine old woman especially interested me.
She took her pipe from her mouth and looked at us long and silently,
with piercing eyes . . . this old woman was nearly always amongst
the crowd, constantly sitting at a respectful distance from our tent. . . .
But most interesting were the children — some half-dozen boys about
eight to twelve years old, with frank, open faces, bright lustrous eyes,
and well-formed heads."
The chiefs compound or " lumbu " x was fenced off by tall,
straight-stemmed trees of poplar- like appearance : possibly
dracaenas. His son Nsusu-a-mpembe (" the White Fowl ") came
to conduct them courteously to the presence of his father
[whom Comber styles the " Soba," this being the Portuguese
designation of native chiefs in Angola].
" The son of the Soba made his appearance, dressed in a red and
black plaid wound round his body and over his shoulders, a military
coat, and a military cocked hat. He advanced slowly to the sound of
drums and bugles, his people forming an avenue at his approach.
When he reached within a dozen paces, he stepped briskly forward
from the umbrella held over him, and lifting his hat, and making a
good bow, shook hands with us. He had come to conduct us to the
Soba, his father, by whom we were grandly received ; indeed, in a more
stately and striking manner than by the King of Congo. He was
1 This word Ltanbu often recurs in Grenfell's diaries and notes dealing with
south-west Congoland. It is a word meaning stockade, fenced enclosure, and may
be related to the Eastern Bantu root -umba, a house. A somewhat similar word in
the Bangi and Bangala languages of the northern Congo is Ngumba.
MISSIONARY PIONEERS IN CONGOLAND 67
sitting on a bamboo native chair, dressed much in the same style as his
son, and was surrounded by musicians. He rose from his seat on our
approach and advanced to meet us, while his band made such a
deafening noise that our efforts to speak to him were in vain. The
musical instruments consisted of some large drums, about six cornets and
bugles, and seven ivory trumpets : these trumpets were each of a whole
tusk, and gave forth very softened sweet sounds. As he had nothing
but leopard skins to offer to us to sit upon, and the music was almost
too much, we retired, asking him to visit us in our tent. This he did,
with his son, soon after, when we explained why we had come. He
thought we were traders and had come from Ambriz to buy his ivory,
30. NATIVE MUSICIANS AT TUNGWA, 1 878
(Photographed by Grenfell.)
and seemed scarcely to believe us when we said we had never bought a
single tusk, and only wanted to teach black men what was good. He
had had no experience of missionaries before."
The question of their being allowed to travel on beyond
Tungwa to the Congo or anywhere else interiorwards was
referred by Nsusu-a-mpembe to the decision of the supreme
chief of the Makuta country — Bwaka-matu, who lived at
Mbanza Makuta, 1 about six miles farther on. Bentley
records with some humour Bwaka-matu's reception of Nsusu-
a-mpembe's well-meant description of the missionaries' aims
1 It was at Mbanza Makuta in 1880 that Comber was shot in the back.
68 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
and ambitions. " Oh, they don't buy ivory ? What do they
want then ? Teach us about God ! Something about dying,
indeed ! There is far too much of that now : people are always
dying in my town. They are not coming here ... to bewitch
me. Why do not the Tungwa people send them away?" So
they were turned back from Tungwa and forced to retrace their
steps to San Salvador. Comber proceeded to England to lay
the joint report before his Mission Council. 1
Grenfell, however, made his way to the Cameroons, where
his second marriage took place (at Victoria). For a short time
(1879) he left the service of the Baptist Mission to explore and
to study African trade questions, and returned as a missionary
to the Congo in 1880.
1 Early in 1879 Comber read a paper at the Royal Geographical Society on his
Cameroons and Congo journeys (Richard Burton being present).
CHAPTER V
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE CONGO
BEFORE resuming the story of missionary adventure
and discovery it might be as well to sketch as briefly
as possible the history of the white man's dealings with
Congoland.
The native kingdom of the Lower Congo stands first in
importance as the region with the longest recorded history.
It seems to have been founded early in the fourteenth century
by a chief named Emini-a-nzima, who dwelt somewhere near
Musuko (Nsuku), on the south bank of the Lower Congo. He
was succeeded by a son, Lukeni, who began life as a lawless
"Prince Hal" and ended as a wise conqueror and administrator,
with his capital at the present town of San Salvador. The
hilly or tableland region of Zombo and Mpemba was then
named " Ekongo," apparently from the dominant Kongo tribe.
The Ba-kongo or Eshi-kongo 1 (as they are self-styled — the
best etymology of the name seems to be "hunters") appar-
ently reached their modern home by journeying up from the
south-east, from the region bounded on the east by the River
Kwango. There are other " Ba-kongo " or " Tu-kongo " tribes
of south-central Congoland which may have been originally
related to the western Kongo people. The Kongo language is
intimately allied to that of the inhabitants of the northern half
of Angola, and less closely to the group of Bantu languages
which in the south-east branches into Herero, and also more
faintly to the tongues of south-central Congoland between the
middle Kasai, Kwango and the territories of the Mwata Yanvo.
The Kongo people are evidently one of the main offshoots of
the early Bantu (Luba, Kuba) invasion of the southern half
1 The etymology Eshi- is apparently A-ishi from the plural prefix A- which is a
weakening of Ba- and refers to " people " : coupled with the root shi, nshi, meaning
" country." But there is a great deal of uncertainty still as to the derivation and
meaning of the particle sfii, as .associated with Kongo speech, and with many other
racial names in W. Central Africa (Bashilange, Bashilele, etc.).
69
70 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
of Africa, an immigration which at first made a wide detour to
the south and west to avoid the dense forests of the central
Congo basin. The original Bantu vigour which created semi-
civilization and powerful monarchies in Uganda, Ankole,
south-west Nyasaland, and northern Zambezia (Mwene
Mutapa), in Bakubaland, Burua, Lunda, and the regions of
the upper Kwilu, penetrated as far to the north-west as the
Lower Congo in its cataract region and its embouchure, the
influence even stretching north of the Congo mouth to the
coast-lands of Kabinda and Luango.
There is a sharp division between the Kongo language of
the Congo, from near Stanley Pool to Kabinda, and the other
Bantu dialects to the north, north-east, and east, which have
reached their present localities by a different line of migration
to that which has brought the Ba-kongo from South-Central
Africa through the southern and western limits of the Congo
basin.
When the Portuguese explorer Dom Diogo Cam (still
remembered by name in Congoland) discovered the mouth of
the Congo in 1482 he at once heard from the natives of the
existence in the interior of a great "monarch," the Mani,
Mwani, or Mwene 'Kongo (Lord of the Congo people), 1 resident
at Mbanza 'Kongo. The Portuguese exaggerated even the
local importance and power of this Congo chieftain, and des-
patched to him a formal embassy in 1490 under Roderigo de
Souza, who was accompanied by Catholic missionaries. The
King of Kongo was baptized about 1492, and Christianity
nominally established as the religion of his country. In 1534
a cathedral was built under the influence of the Portuguese at
the capital town (Mbanza 'Kongo), which was rechristened San
Salvador; and in 1549 a Jesuit mission was established at this
place.
In 1570 the kingdom was overrun by a savage cannibal
horde called by the Portuguese "Jagga" and by the Italian
chroniclers "Giaga," who are probably not the modern Ba-yaka
of the lower Kwango, but the Imbangala of the middle
1 This term Mani, Mwani, or Mwene, meaning Lord, Overseer, Owner, Great
Chief, is absent from Bentley's comprehensive dictionary, but certainly was in use at
one time on the Lower Congo near the sea. It is a widespread Bantu word, and ac-
cording to Bentley it is now reduced in Kongo to the particle ne. Kongo or Ekongo
was never the name of the great river, in spite of its similarity to Kwango, the Bantu
name of the Congo and of so many African rivers. Kwango is really Ku-angu, an
infinitive, and is the name often given to the Congo itself in the cataract region,
besides the great south-western affluent which drains eastern Angola. Kongo on the
other hand is a root widespread in western Bantu languages meaning " spear " and
" hunter.' 1
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE CONGO 71
Kwango (Kasanje). 1 An appeal was made to the King of
Portugal (Dom Sebastiao), and six hundred soldiers were sent
out armed with firearms. This force drove out the "Jaggas"
and restored the Portuguese civilization and Christianity of the
Congo kingdom.
Some kind of Portuguese suzerainty was then accepted by
the kingdom of Kongo, but this vassalage was gradually weak-
ened as Portugal itself was numbed in its power by the Spanish
usurpation of the Portuguese throne ; for amongst other dis-
advantages this seventy years' " captivity " entailed on Portugal
-*-"■}
31. ANCIENT PORTUGUESE INSCRIPTION ON ROCKS ABOVE MATADI
was the transference of Dutch hostility and rapacity to unfor-
tunate Lusitania. The Dutch attempted to oust the Portuguese
not only from the East Indies and Brazil, but also from
Angola and other parts of West Africa. In various ways the
Portuguese had become unpopular in San Salvador. In order
1 The tribal name Yaka or Yaga crops up elsewhere in equatorial West Africa.
Nevertheless it is clear from Battell's adventures some forty years earlier that the
"Jaggas" came from the direction of the middle Kwango. Andrew Battell's "Mani
Kesock" to whom the (Batwa) pygmies paid tribute is evidently Mwene Kasongo of
Lunda. The " Jagga " raiders may have been the marauding people now known as
Ba-jok, Ba-kioko, etc., still inhabiting the south-west parts of Congoland, but Purchas
(AB., 84) distinctly states that their own name for themselves was " Imbangola."
Jaga was the title of a chief or leader or ruling clan, like i\\ejinga of old Angola.
72 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
to cope with the Dutch on the River Kwanza they transferred
their forces to the coast regions of Angola, and abandoned the
cathedral of San Salvador (1608) in favour of the see of Sao
Paulo de Loanda, the cathedral of which important coast town
had been commenced in 1575 by Dom Paulo Diaz de Novaes.
The bold Dutchmen sent an embassy to the King of Kongo in
1642, during the brief time they had captured and held Sao
Paulo de Loanda (1640-8).
In 162 1 a mission was sent by Paul V (Bull of 21st of
August 1620) to the King of Kongo at San Salvador. Pope
i
5»WS»<-:
32. OLD PORTUGUESE INSCRIPTION ON ROCKS ABOVE MATADI
Urban VIII in 1640 erected the Congo kingdom into an
Apostolic prefecture depending on Rome directly, and des-
patched in 1644 ten Italian Capuchins under Father Bonaven-
tura of Alessano, who settled at " Sonho " (Sant' Antonio) on
the south shore of the Congo estuary, in Kakongo, San Salva-
dor, and along the cataract region, perhaps as far inland as
Manyanga. In 1646 a second mission started for the Congo
under Father Bonaventura of Taggia ; in 1650 a third under
Bonaventura of Sorrento and Geronimo of Montesarchio ; in
1 65 1 a fourth mission under Father Frangois of Valence, ap-
pointed Apostolical prefect of the Congo. With these Capu-
chins began the second period of Congo evangelization, which
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE CONGO 73
continued with much energy and some success till 1717, when
the Capuchins were driven away by the natives.
In 165 1, Father Erasmus of Furnes, a Belgian, accom-
panied forty-five Capuchins to the Congo; in (about) 1653 two
more Belgian fathers — Siller of Antwerp and Georges of
Gheel — took part in the fifth Capuchin mission. Father
Georges was killed by the natives.
Between 1673 an ^ 1675 an independent Flemish mis-
sion of Franciscan Recollets arrived from Antwerp and
33. THE RUINS OF THE WALL OP' CONVENT, SAN SALVADOR, BUILT BY THE
PORTUGUESE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Brussels, but returned in two years. This Belgian mission was
commanded by Father Wauters of Antwerp, assisted by
Fathers Corluy of Brussels and Cacherat (a Frenchman). In
view of the recent political development of Congo history it is
interesting to note these first appearances of Belgians in the
Congo drama, especially as one of them — Georges — became a
martyr to his propagandist zeal.
Pope Innocent X sent a special embassy to the Kongo
kingdom in 1652 ; and his successors on the papal throne
occupied themselves assiduously with Congo affairs until they
became disheartened by the expulsion of the Capuchins in 1717.
74 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Among- the notable Italians who carried on a Christian propa-
ganda in western Congoland, the following names deserve to be
again recorded, from the special point of view of this book
(contributions to human knowledge) : Father Giacinto Brus-
ciotto of Vetralla (one time Prefect of the Apostolic Mission),
who in 1650 and 1659 published at Rome works on the
Kongo language — a vocabulary of Kongo with parallel columns
of Latin, Portuguese, and Italian, and later, a Latin grammar
of Kongo 1 [the earliest record of the Kongo language was the
translation of a Portuguese religious treatise printed at Lisbon
in 1624]; and Fathers Cavazzi of Montecucollo (1687), Merolla
of Sorrento (1692), and Zucchelli (17 12), who all wrote
treatises on the manners and customs of the Lower Conp-o and
Angola peoples.
In the early eighteenth century, at the close of the reign of
Louis XIV, the French Government had not only attempted to
create political interests in the Far East through religious
missions, but aspired to replace the Portuguese missionaries in
Abyssinia (for the same political purpose), and even on the
Lower Congo. In fact, a direct French influence in Congo-
land certainly began in the eighteenth century. The Pope was
induced to sanction a French Roman Catholic mission in 1760.
The Abbe Belgarde was appointed by the propaganda "prefect
of the mission of Loango, Cacongo, and other kingdoms on this
side of the Zaire," and arrived on the Luango coast in 1766.
He was accompanied amongst others by the Abbe Proyart,
who in 1776 wrote a History of Loango, with a vocabulary of
the Kakongo dialect.
There is no clear record as to what caused the fading away
of this French missionary effort, but it does not seem to have
lasted more than eight years. In 1772 a French-Kongo
dictionary of about one thousand words, apparently of the
Kakongo dialect, was compiled at Paris, and found its way in
MS. to the British Museum Library, where it still is.
The last expedition of Italian missionaries (Barbadini)
reached San Salvador in 1778, but did not settle there. In 1781
final attempt was made by the Franciscans to establish a mis-
sion at Sonyo (Lower Congo) under the protection of Portugal.
Father Raffaelle di Castello led this forlorn hope, which
attempted to reopen relations with the King of San Salvador.
But native hostility had been increasing, and the missionaries
— Italian, French, and Portuguese — withdrew completely from
1 Of which a translation was made and published by Dr. H. Grattan Guinness
in 1880.
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE CONGO 75
this region in 1782, though some vestiges of the mission
remained on the Luango coast till 1800. Father B. M. de
Cannecattim, a Portuguese Capuchin, possibly had something
to do with the remains of the Luango mission. He published
in Loanda (?) in 1804 a Portuguese-Latin-Kongo-Bunda
vocabulary. The Kongo kingdom of San Salvador was not
revisited by Europeans until 1857, when the German explorer,
Dr. Bastian, made his way to the capital. In 1859 (to 1866) a
Portuguese military force occupied San Salvador to put down
civil war and establish on the throne Dom Pedro V, whom the
Baptist missionaries found still reigning in 1878. [He died in
1891.]
Christianity in a rather gross form certainly obtained a very
strong hold over the Kongo people in the district round San
Salvador. A King of Kongo — Don Garcia — became, accord-
ing to the accounts of the Capuchins — extremely devout in the
latter part of the seventeenth century. He had, as he believed,
owed to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin not only the
birth of a son when he was despairing of an heir, but the
restoration of that son to his arms after he had been captured
as a hostage by the "Count" of Sonyo. The "Count" of
Sonyo was the chieftain over a small district (probably still
known to the natives as Sonyo, a corruption of San Antonio)
on the south bank of the Congo estuary near the sea. The
priests of the seventeenth century carried to Congoland the
political ideas of that Italy which had fallen from the grand
political freedom and culture of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries to the base condition in which it lay during the seven-
teenth and eighteenth — Duchies and Grand Duchies in place
of Free Cities and Republics. So the kingdom of Kongo,
which was probably at its most powerful a confederation of
native chieftainships north and south of the Lower Congo,
owning a vague reverence or allegiance to the oldest-estab-
lished of the chieftainships at Mbanza (San Salvador), was
divided up by Italian and Portuguese geographers (whom the
French and Flemish copied) into Countships, Grand Duchies,
Dukedoms, and Principalities. Some virago who had got
herself recognized as the chieftainess over a dozen villages of
reed huts was styled the Duchess of Bata. The headman of a
market town became the Marquis of Pemba, and so on.
When the Portuguese had somewhat recovered their posi-
tion in Angola, and the Dutch had abandoned that part of
Africa, they attempted to reassert their suzerainty over the
Kongo kingdom, as their suspicions of French intentions were
76 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
somewhat aroused. They succeeded in conquering the regions
near the coast. By 1784 they had attempted to assert their
domination north of the Congo mouth by building a small fort
at Kabinda ; but France, who had already no doubt formulated
plans of African conquest (pushed aside by the French Revolu-
tion), sternly forbade these pretensions, and the French naval
commander, the Marquis de Marigny, drove away the Portu-
guese from Kabinda in 1786. Portugal was too much involved in
the Napoleonic wars to make any further move in this direction. 1
After Waterloo and St. Helena, British ambitions as re-
gards West African discovery and political occupation were
aroused, and Great Britain joined with France in forbidding an
extension of Portuguese rule north of the Ambriz (Mbirizi
River) at Kinsembo. Kinsembo, in fact, remained the ne phis
ultra of the Portuguese down to 1884.
As to the supposed knowledge on the part of Portuguese
explorers and merchants, or of Jesuit or Capuchin missionaries,
concerning the far interior of Congoland prior to 1877, it was
certainly limited. They had some acquaintance with the
general character of the Congo stream as far inland as Man-
yanga, or the limits of the Basundi country. They knew the
plateau region east of San Salvador, and had penetrated south-
eastwards to the Kwango River. The Portuguese in fact
reached the Kwango direct from Angola early in the seventeenth
century, and effected something like a revolution in the tastes,
civilization, and wars of southern Congoland. This will be
referred to later in describing the regions of the Kasai basin.
But from some cause not clearly explained, Portuguese civiliza-
tion did not "catch on" with the more savage people of Stanley
Pool or of the Central Congo basin. Their progress north-
wards down the Kasai and Kwango was stopped by rapids.
One or two of their traders, and possibly a missionary, may
have reached the shores of Stanley Pool, 2 but no hint of this
1 As a matter of fact she was still full of energy and ambition regarding Africa,
and though the ally of England in Europe, she was much disturbed by new British
ambitions in Africa. The seizing of the Cape of Good Hope by a British force in
1796 at once caused Portugal to attempt on a very bold scale the annexation of all the
regions between Angola and Mozambique, and the exploration of the interior in search
of the rumoured Great Lakes. It was announced at the time, that this was done
deliberately with a view to cutting off the British from the formation of an empire
which would extend from Cape Town to the Mediterranean. Dr. Lacerda, the great
Portuguese explorer who conducted this expedition (and died before it was fully
accomplished), actually predicted that the eventual result of the British establishment
at the Cape of Good Hope would be a Cape-to-Cairo dominion !
2 In about 1622 five Portuguese slave traders started for the kingdom of Makoko
(Stanley Pool). They were attacked and plundered by the wild natives, but after
fortuitous plagues of famine and disease the natives voluntarily set them free and
restored their goods.
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE CONGO 77
lake-like reservoir of the Lower Congo beyond the terraced
mountains of the coast was ever recorded by Portuguese
geographers. They apparently only travelled as far as the
influence of the King of Kongo extended, to the vicinity
perhaps, but not to the actual waters, of Stanley Pool (which
they called the country of the Makoko). The native middle-
men or the more adventurous amongst the European traders
brought back news of an important people called the Anzico,
or in the Italian rendering, the "Anzichi" (pronounced
Antsiki). These Anzico, Anzicanas, or Anzeques, were gov-
erned by a chief called the Great Makoko. This title is
obviously the same as the Makoko of Mbe, the great chief of
the " Bateke," who, more than two hundred years later, gave
such a cordial reception to De Brazza and the French flag.
Moreover, the name Anzico, etc., is probably a corruption of
" Banseke," a term used by the Basundi and other Kongo
people near Stanley Pool to describe the " Bushmen," the
people of the interior. Possibly this, or a similar term, was
akin to the tribal name " Bateke," which was given by Stanley
in 1877 to the confederation of tribes that occupy the north and
south coasts of Stanley Pool. The " Bateke " do not apply this
name to themselves ; apparently their own designation is Atio
or Bateo. The root -teke sometimes means " Pygmy."
Portuguese travellers discovered the upper Kasai River at
the close of the eighteenth century, and this together with the
Kwango and of course the delineation of Angola were the only
contributions made by them to Congo geography before the
days of Livingstone; though their civilizing influence and even
words of their language were carried right across the southern
basin of the Congo and north - eastwards along its main
stream. In 1877 Stanley discovered four old Portuguese
muskets in a village on the Congo (Rubunga) just at its north-
ernmost bend. It was here that the word " Kongo " first came
to his ears.
The vaunted Portuguese maps of the seventeenth century,
with their Flemish and French repetitions of the eighteenth,
combined with the more or less correct geography of Angola
a ridiculous and impossible mixture of the river systems of
Abyssinia and the Lower Zambezi, joined to the Ptolemaic
traditions of Central African lakes. In fact, in these maps the
waters of the Nile, the Congo, and the Zambezi were united by
natural canals in defiance of the laws of hydrostatics.
Nevertheless the Portuguese intervention in western and
southern Congo history endowed the whole basin of that
78 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
mighty river with food products and weapons which profoundly
affected its human development. To a region, hitherto only
knowing as sustenance plantains, leaves, fungi, palm-shoots,
beans, palm-nuts, and fish ; human flesh, the flesh of rare
domestic goats, sheep, fowls, and dogs, or of a few big wild
beasts occasionally and with difficulty killed, or of small beasts or
birds caught in snares : the Portuguese introduced the domestic
pig and the European ox, and that succulent " Muscovy " duck,
a Brazilian bird which has travelled right across Africa from
the Congo to Mozambique ; they brought (to a part of Africa
poorly supplied with cultivated plants) such a variety of vege-
table food -stuffs as the manioc, ground-nut, maize, capsi-
cum, sweet potato, pineapple, guava, orange, lime, sugar-cane,
tomato, and papaw. The tobacco introduced by the Portuguese
has contended successfully against the stupefying or maddening
hemp which has entered Congoland from the far Muhammadan
north-east.
Though unsuccessful in civilizing the Lower Congo they
have built up free, intelligent, educated native communities in
northern Angola and on the central Kwango (like the
Ambaquistas), whose enterprising trade journeys led to the first
intelligent crossings of Africa from west to east. Portugal has
played a great part for good and ill in Congo history.
The first Britisher to visit these regions was an Essex sailor
of Leigh, near Southend, Andrew Battell, who somewhere about
1 5 1 5 shipped on a voyage of discovery towards America, got
shipwrecked on the coast of Brazil, was eventually rescued by a
Portuguese ship and retained for years on board as a kind of
prisoner at large, lest he should communicate geographical
knowledge to his fellow-countrymen. Battell accompanied this
ship therefore in her voyages backwards and forwards to the
Angola coast about Benguela. Here the country was being
ravaged by the mysterious cannibal horde of the Jaggas [Giagas],
already referred to in the history of the Kongo kingdom. Battell
was eventually left with the "Giagas" as a hostage, and in their
company saw much of southern Angola. In all he seems to have
spent nearly eighteen years south of the Kwanza River or off the
coast of Congo and Luango : though his narrative is rather con-
fusing and does not always distinguish between hearsay and
personal experience. But he brought back definite accounts of
the pygmies of Congoland and the great apes of the Luango
coast, whom he calls " Pongoes," a name still applied in that
region to the chimpanzee.
The British, however, gave no great heed to the Congo until
-. *dr%?r& do JTl
34. A MAP OF THE CONGO REGIONS PUBLISHED AT AMSTERDAM IN 1733 IN THE ATLAS
OF GUILLAUME DE L'lSLE (PUBLISHERS, JAN COVENS AND CORNEILLE MORTIER)
This map represents the utmost information ever given to the world by the Portuguese, Italian, French, and Flemish
explorers (mainly missionaries) down to the middle of the eighteenth century.
8o GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
the close of the eighteenth century. About this time they were
beginning to search for the sea outlet of the mysterious Niger,
which rose behind Senegambia and flowed eastward. Some
thought it might describe an enormous curve and reach the sea
through the Lower Congo. A Captain Maxwell of the British
Navy (which had begun to cruise along the coast of Lower
Guinea from 1783) surveyed the Lower Congo with consider-
able care and accuracy from its mouth to Boma and Noki in
1 793- When the Napoleonic wars were* over, in 1816, the
British Government despatched Captain J. K. Tuckey, r.n.,
with a well-staffed expedition to explore the Congo from its
mouth upwards, there being a strong belief at that period that
the Congo was the real outlet of the Niger. The expedition
only got as far as Isangila. Tuckey and seventeen of the
officers and men died of fever, and the only effective results
were the biological (chiefly botanic) collections of the botanist
Christian Smith (who also contributed a short study of the
Congo language and ethnography). 1
In 1827-9 H.M.SS. Levin and Barracouta of Captain
Owen's great African coast- exploring expedition surveyed the
estuarine Congo. Captain Hunt in 1857 carried on the survey
to Matadi, and the great explorer Richard Burton penetrated a
few miles farther (describing Yalala Falls) in 1863. 2
During the 'thirties and 'forties of the last century British
energies in West Africa were mainly occupied with projects
both benevolent and practical in connection with the Niger and
the Niger coast. At the end of the 'forties, however, a strong
impulsion of missionary energy took place in South Africa,
chiefly in connection with the London Missionary Society,
which has played such a very large part — I think I might say
without exaggeration a magnificent part — in the opening up
of all South- Central Africa from Cape Town to Tanganyika
and the southern limits of the Congo basin. Foremost amongst
the agents of this society was David Livingstone, who, assisted
a good deal by the generosity and companionship of W. Cotton
Oswell (the Selous of his day), not only discovered Lake
Ngami, the Victoria Falls, and the Upper Zambezi, but, with
the doubtful exception of earlier Portuguese travellers, was the
first to reveal to us the upper Kasai River under that name or
Kasabi. Livingstone explored part of the Kwango, and
1 One of the skulls of Congo natives illustrated in this book was collected by the
Tuckey Expedition.
2 About the time Owen's expedition was off the Congo coast a Frenchman, Dou-
ville, is supposed to have been exploring the interior, but Douville's book published in
1832 is full of fictitious episodes.
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE CONGO 81
reached the Atlantic at St. Payl de Loanda, thence travelling
back through the south-western limits of the Congo basin to
the Upper Zambezi, and tracing that river in its essential
features down to the Indian Ocean.
This wonderful journey on his part had a direct effect on
Congo history. It led Livingstone back as an explorer and
a Consul to the
Zambezi basin and
Lake Nyasa, but
he never rested
until he passed
beyond the basin
of the Zambezi to
explore the mys-
teries of what he
considered were
the upper waters
of the Nile. All
those stories of
great lakes lying
to the west and
north-west of Lake
Nyasa beyond
ranges of plateau-
mountains coin-
cided, in his opin-
ion, with the ex-
travagant ideas of
seventeenth - cen -
tury Portuguese
geography, ideas
which had dragged
the mountains,
lakes, and kingdoms of Abyssinia twenty degrees too far south.
Livingstone discovered the Chambezi, Bangweulu, the south
end of Tanganyika (already the north end had been discovered
by Burton and Speke in 1857), Lake Mweru and the Luapula
in 1867, Lake Bangweulu in 1868, and after crossing and
recrossing Tanganyika had reached Nyangwe, on the Lualaba-
Congo, in 1871 ; this river he believed to be the Albertine
Nile. Livingstone died at Chitambo's to the south of Lake
Bangweulu, just within the basin of the Congo.
Before he was known to have been relieved by Stanley the
Royal Geographical Society of London had despatched two
7T y.;* \ ^w0 ■'■*-*:?&:
35. TREE UNDER WHICH LIVINGSTONE'S HEART WAS
BURIED AT THE VILLAGE OF CHITAMBO
I. — G
82 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
expeditions to his assistance. One under Cameron departed
from Zanzibar and the East Coast ; the other under Lieutenant
Grandy, r.n., was sent out to the mouth of the Congo. For,
although Livingstone still clung to his Nile theory, the geo-
graphical world was more and more inclined to link the mighty
Lualaba with the unknown course of the Congo.
Grandy reached San Salvador in 1873, an d made a futile
attempt to push his way north-eastwards past the cataracts of
the Congo. His journey was arrested, however, at the same
place, Tungwa, as that where Grenfell and Comber's pioneer-
ing expedition was stopped in 1878, and near where Comber
was shot and obliged to turn back in 1880.
Cameron's journey had infinitely greater results, was, in fact,
one of the turning-points in recent African history. Cameron
reached Nyangwe, but, guided by the advice of the Arabs,
deemed it impossible with his attenuated expedition to force his
way past the cataracts of the Lualaba northwards. He left
Nyangwe to journey by the line of least resistance to the Atlantic
coast, but quitted the Lualaba with the emphatic conviction that
it was none other than the main Congo. Consequently, the map
he published in 1875 on his return, though it omitted the great
northerly bend of the river, was the first indication coming
anywhere near reality of the approximate course of this mighty
river. Hitherto the Congo, in spite of the enormous depths
of its estuarine course and the volume of fresh water exceed-
ing that of any other African river which it poured into the
Atlantic, had been represented on all maps as little else than
the lower course of the Kwango, of which the Kasai was made
an affluent.
Cameron's journey produced remarkable political results.
Firstly, it placed definitely before the British Government the
option of assuming a Protectorate over the inner basin of the
Congo founded on Cameron's legitimate treaties with the chiefs.
(This proposal, owing to the opposition of Manchester and
Liverpool, was abruptly dismissed.) Secondly, it stirred up the
Portuguese to great activity in African exploration, so that
before it was too late they might unite across Africa the
provinces of Angola and Mozambique. Thirdly, it suggested
to the King of the Belgians an international movement with its
home in Brussels which would relieve England of the self-
imposed charge (alternately assumed and put on one side ac-
cording as the national pride and purse demanded) of policing
and civilizing Africa.
Whilst these eventualities were being discussed came the
THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE CONGO 83
levin stroke of Stanley's journey down the Congo from
Nyangwe to the sea.
The revival of the slave trade during the third quarter of
the nineteenth century had obliged the British men-of-war off the
West Coast of Africa to take a great interest in the Congo,
especially between 1870 and 1875. Besides the attempts to
prevent the export of slaves, British naval forces had to put
down a serious state of piracy. The increasing profits of trade
on the Lower Congo, and the establishment of French, Dutch,
British, and Portuguese trading stations in a land owning no
allegiance to any European Power, had offered inducements
to enterprising natives or ex-slavers — mongrels and outcasts
with a dash of European blood — to turn pirate. These Congo
pirates lurked in the numerous creeks between the islands of
the estuarine Congo and the mainland. When strong enough,
they attacked isolated trading stations, or boats or small
steamers passing up or down the Congo. The late Admiral
Sir William Hewett distinguished himself by his bravery in
putting down this piracy, which he had completely suppressed
in 1875.
By this time the Congo coast had become particularly
English in sympathies, owing to the constant and lucrative
visits of British men-of-war. The English language in a
corrupt form was the common medium of trading intercourse
between the Cameroons and Banana Point, while on the other
hand Portuguese was the universal medium of communication
south of the north Congo bank. In fact, so strong had British
influence become in these waters that when Stanley emerged at
Boma in 1877, completing the work half done by Cameron,
most people out in West Africa concluded that a British Pro-
tectorate over the Congo basin and the north bank of the
Lower Congo would inevitably follow. 1
But the work of the King of the Belgians had attracted the
attention of other European Powers to African possibilities.
The German African Society had been founded in 1873. As
early as 1875 a German traveller (Capt. von Homeyer) had
proposed the annexation of the Congo by Germany. German
explorers — Pogge, and, later, Reichardt, Bohm, and Kaiser —
had explored and mapped the countries south-west of Tangan-
yika, and had crossed and recrossed southern Congoland. A
1 It is said that the King of the Belgians at first was so absolutely certain that
Britain would take up Stanley's and Cameron's discoveries as a national affair that he
waited until November 1878 before forming his own plans for utilizing Stanley's
discoveries.
84 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
German scientific expedition under Dr. Pechuel-Loesche had
spent some two years (rather fruitlessly, be it remarked) on the
Luango coast. France, as soon as she had recovered from the
shock of the German War, had begun to explore the hinter-
land of the Gaboon, and had despatched under international
guise De Brazza to feel his way towards the Upper Congo. The
Dutch, owing to their great commercial success on the Lower
Congo, had begun to dream of a new Dutch West Africa.
Portugal had determined to extend her rule, in spite of British
prohibitions, to the south bank of the Congo, and to secure the
empire of the Mwata Yanvo. Who would have thought at
this juncture, to quote a well-known fable without any offensive
intent, that whilst all the first and second-class Powers of the
Old World were fencing as to who might annex the Congo
basin, this richest prize of Africa should be carried off by
Reynard, by the astute ruler of a tiny northern state, and with
no African trade, no fleet, and no colonial ambitions ?
Stanley's return to Europe in 1878 did not find the British
Government of that day in a mood to embark on Congo enter-
prise. The Nearer East was not yet pacified, we were blushing
a little at the rather odd trick by which we had acquired
Cyprus ; later we feared complications in regard to Afghanistan,
and the Zulu cloud was gathering to burst. In addition to all
this, to have outragi France, Germany, Portugal, and Holland,
and to have pledged ourselves to an expense of many millions
by "protecting" the basin of the Congo, would have been an
act of unwisdom. We were content therefore to let the King
of the Belgians have a free hand, especially as he entrusted the
commission to a Welshman.
Another element also had entered the problem of Congo
development. The Arabs of Zanzibar had discovered the
Lualaba-Congo and the Lomami about 1865-6. The Nubian
and Sudanese- Arab traders, carrying with them here an Italian
and there a great German explorer like Schweinfurth, at much
the same period had crossed the watershed of the Nile in the
region of the Bahr-al-Ghazal and had entered that of the Wele-
Mubangi, the northern limits of the Congo basin.
This therefore was the juncture reached by Congo history in
1878-9 when Grenfell and Comber were attempting in vain to
pass through the hostile middlemen to Stanley Pool. The
forces of the Caucasian were converging on the Congo basin
from all directions.
CHAPTER VI
SAN SALVADOR AND STANLEY POOL
FOLLOWING on Comber's report to the Home Com-
mittee at the beginning of 1879 the Baptist Mission in
Congoland was definitely organized.
In June 1879 a great expedition reached the Lower Congo,
including, besides Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Comber, W. Holman
Bentley, 1 and, among others, H. E. Crudgington and John S.
Hartland.
" When we reached San Salvador in 1879," writes Bentley, "it was
to all intents and purposes a heathen land. King and people were
wholly given to fetishism and all the superstitions and cruelties of the
Dark Continent. Some ruined walls of the Cathedral remained, the
chancel arch, and part of a Lady chapel — the sad relics of a failure. In
a house in the King's compound were kept a large crucifix and some
images of saints, but they were only the King's fetishes. If the rains
were insufficient they were sometimes brought out and carried round
the town. Some old people about the country called themselves
Minkwikizi — ' Believers ' — in some of whom there seemed to have >
lingered faint glimmerings of such light as had been brought in the old
times. At the funeral of a munkwikizi there were always some special
ceremonies, marks of crosses on the shroud, sprinkling of water, etc.,
which only a munkwikizi could perform ; they were, in fact, a caste of
masters of the ceremonies at great funerals, and very little else."
" The best case I have heard" of was that of the old uncle of Nlemvo,
the young man who has helped me in all my literary work. This old
man had a small brass crucifix — his ' Christo ' — to which he prayed
every day, asking a blessing on himself and people. Later on, when he
was dying, too weak to raise himself, he had the crucifix stuck up on the
wall beside his bed, where he could see it, and there he lay dying, sure
1 The Rev. Dr. W. Holman Bentley, who died at Bristol in 1905, was one of the
most notable of the Baptist missionaries on the Congo, and of considerable reputa-
tion as an African explorer and philologist. He has written two travel books of great
merit, especially the work published in 1900, Pioneering on the Congo. He published
a grammar and dictionary of the Kongo language in 1886; but it is by his more
extended Dictionary and Grammar of 1887 that he will be permanently remem-
bered. For this truly remarkable book, packed like his Pioneering from end to end
with original, terse, sound information, the discriminating University of Glasgow con-
ferred on him the Doctor's hood in 1902.
85
86 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
**r
'«~m
in his heart that his Christo would take him safely to heaven. Sub-
sequently, when we were holding .our services at San Salvador, on two
occasions after the sermon, have people, visitors to the town, risen to
urge the people to listen to
';•,'•; : '. . •- "i '-./}■ . ;.,: ...,"'; -.. , ' the teaching and to receive
it; for old relatives had
told them long before of a
Saviour who died for all,
and now the same story
was brought to them again
by us. Once a man, and
the other time a woman,
gave this testimony."
"A flat wooden cross,
about 2 feet long, 4 inches
broad, is the common fetish
which confers skill in hunt-
ing. It is called santu {santa
cruz, 'holy cross'), and when-
ever the possessor of a santu
kills an animal its blood is
daubed on the santu. It is
said that a santu loses its
power if the possessor is
guilty of any immorality ;
in such case a fine has to be
paid and a ceremony gone
through before its power can
be restored by a doctor of
santu. This association of
the necessity of a pure life
with the effective possession
of a cross is an interesting
relic of the old teaching.
Old crucifixes are to be
found amongst the insignia
of some chiefs; and now and
then a Portuguese missal."
H
1
There must have
36. IMAGE OF CHRIST FOUND AT SAN SALVADOR, i i- . • • j
used as a fetish, some two or three been some lingering ictea
hundred years old of Portuguese sover-
eignty at San Salvador
even in 1879, because when the second Baptist expedition was
starting thither from Musuko in July 1877 the King of San
Salvador sent to say that if they were coming to "live
always" at his capital they ought first to obtain permission
from the Portuguese Governor at Loanda. However, to do
SAN SALVADOR AND STANLEY POOL 87
so would have been to have admitted the rights of Portugal in
that region, which was not then a thing desired by the Baptist
Mission, whose representatives in those days dreaded the ex-
tension of Portuguese influence, believing that Portugal would
treat Protestant missions as Spain had dealt with the Baptists
and Methodists of Fernando P6. 1
When the expedition under Comber and Bentley approached
the city of San Salvador a large escort came to meet them
waving the King's flag. "There was something remarkable
about that flag ; it was a gold five-pointed star on a dark-blue
ground. . . . When Stanley arrived he adopted that identical
design for the flag of his expedition (because it represented the
lone star of the Federated States under whom he had fought as
a volunteer in America). It afterwards became the flag of the
Congo Independent State." [The flag itself had been designed
by Mr. de Bloeme, the celebrated Dutch Consul, and long-time
General Manager of the Dutch House at Banana Point] " As
we neared the capital, crowds of people came to meet us, guns
were fired, and shouts of joy were raised. We entered the
town and sat down close to where we afterwards built the
Mission House."
The King of Kongo (Dom Pedro V) was a huge man, only
five feet six inches in height, but very fat, dressed in a varie-
gated jersey and mantle of scarlet cloth, with an old solar topi
(pith helmet) on his head, and a crucifix and sceptre in his hand,
Then followed the usual period of reaction — fevers to which
these neophytes were unfamiliar. Just a month after their
arrival Mrs. Comber died. But in spite of this blow and several
other disappointments, their reception by the King of Kongo
was so cordial that it was impossible to feel discouraged.
San Salvador in 1879 was a town of about two hundred
houses of grass and sticks, built on a plateau 1 800 feet above
sea-level, a plateau nearly everywhere descending abruptly into
valleys two hundred feet below. Amidst the tangled vegetation
of the outskirts of the town could be traced the masonry of the
ancient walls, fifteen to twenty feet high, built of great lumps of
hsematite iron ore and slabs of limestone.
1 As an antidote to Portugal, the Baptist Mission supported warmly from the
start Stanley's enterprise and the creation of the Congo Free State under the King of
the Belgians. It is curious to note, however, that although the Portuguese took
possession of nearly all the Lower Congo and the kingdom of San Salvador in 1884,
the Baptist missionaries have little or nothing but praise to record of the action of the
Portuguese in regard to religious liberty and educational and other facilities accorded
to mission work. There has been the same story with the American Protestant
missions in Angola. Portugal long ago advanced towards the goal of religious liberty
to an extent far ahead of that which Spain has achieved either at home or abroad.
88 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
The cathedral in the middle of the town was built of the
same materials. In 1879 (according to Bentley) the west front
had fallen and the roof had long ago disappeared, but the other
walls were fairly preserved, especially the chancel. The chancel
arch was a fine span of large dressed stones. The high altar
was covered with small ferns, but in fair condition. There was
a Lady chapel on the north side of the nave, and a vestry on
the south side of the chancel ; three hundred to four hundred
yards to the west were the extensive ruins of a convent, and in
'*^mm
37. RUINS OF CHANCEL ARCH OF ANCIENT PORTUGUESE CATHEDRAL
AT SAN SALVADOR
various places in the jungle were to be found groups of stones
which marked the sites of ancient buildings. Near the west
front of the cathedral were the graves of the old kings and
notables.
The missionaries at first lived in grass houses, but towards
the close of 1879 commenced to build houses of stone just
inside the city wall, borrowing for the purpose some loose stone
from the ruins in the jungle. Limestone of fair quality crops
out in the rock formations near the River Luezi, and here also
was an old lime-kiln which had been used by the Portuguese.
In his work Pioneering on the Congo Bentley describes how in
order to get the limestone to the kiln (a journey of two miles
SAN SALVADOR AND STANLEY POOL 89
down the river) they had first of alt to fell a lofty bombax tree
and get the natives to burn it and adze it into a dug-out canoe,
then to blast the rock with gunpowder and send the limestone
in fragments two miles up-river in this roughly made canoe.
Two of their Cameroons men became stone-mason and
carpenter. They found that " personal supervision was neces-
sary in every branch of the work." Three days' work was
done in one day when they were about, and with far more fun
and brightness. Needless to say, the missionaries worked
t
38. A GROUP OF CONGO PIONEERS AT MUSUKO — HARTLAND, CRUDGINGTON,
COMBER, MR. , A TRADER, MR. GRESHOFF (AN AGENT OF THE DUTCH
HOUSE), MRS. GRENFELL, AND HOLMAN BENTLEY
harder than their black assistants, and each party interchanged
knowledge, African ideas being interwoven with English
notions in the making of the grass-thatched, rough stone
house with the rude joinery of its doorways and window-
frames.
The house was finished by the spring of 1 880. The three
missionaries — Comber, Bentley, and Crudgington — soon be-
came objects of interest and speculation, not so much in San
Salvador, where king and people had rapidly got used to
them, but throughout all the surrounding country, amongst all
the trading people who came from far-distant markets in the
interior to exchange their produce against the goods of the
go GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
white man, brought 'by Kongo traders from the Lower River'
or the port of Ambriz. A ferment was in the country, the
white man was battering at the barrier which had so long shut
out the inner basin of the Congo from his direct access and
knowledge.
Only a few days after Bentley and his party had left
Musuko for San Salvador Stanley had arrived from Zanzibar
for the great expedition that was to build a road past the cata-
racts of the Congo and place a steamer on the Upper River
at Stanley Pool, the expedition under the Comite d'Etudes
du Haut Congo that was to found the Congo Free State. The
"middlemen" — the tribes of Kongo speech that inhabited the
cataracts region between San Salvador and Stanley Pool —
were aflame at -the threatened breach of their privileges.
Except for Stanley's wild rush down the river in 1877 and out
into the white man's region of Boma and the estuary, no force
had as yet challenged the right of the middlemen to control
the trade — chiefly in ivory and palm kernels — between the
regions of the Upper Congo converging to Stanley Pool and
the Congo coast and estuary where the white man's trading
stations were situated.
Added to this, there were already national and religious
jealousies arising among the European nationalities in refer-
ence to the Congo. Pioneering on the Congo, both religious
and secular, was rapidly drifting into two camps, French and
English. The French Roman Catholic missionaries 1 estab-
lished at Landana on the Luango coast under Pere Carrie had
attempted eleven years before to settle at San Salvador, but
had been prevented by sickness and other difficulties. Pere
Carrie wrote a letter to the King of San Salvador which is
published in Dr. Bentley 's book, but which except for this
brief reference is best consigned to oblivion, as the man who
wrote it must have long since felt ashamed of such an action.
The Baptist missionaries were described as "unclean and per-
verse men preaching an unclean and perverse doctrine," and
the King was urged to expel them. Perhaps the pleasantest
episode in connection with this incident was that Bentley some
time afterwards called on Monseigneur Carrie at Boma, and
they not only became but remained friends.
Three other nationalities were involved in this struggle for
the Congo, this zeal for its exploitation, commercial or political.
1 Of a combined Jesuit and undenominational organization styled the Mission of
the Holy Ghost and of the Sacred Heart of Mary. It was to this Mission that the
great traveller Pere Duparquet belonged.
.©
SAN SALVADOR AND STANLEY POOL 91
But the great protagonists were England and France. France,
as already related, had had her eyes on the Congo since the
beginning of the eighteenth century. French missionaries had
worked with some success on the Kakongo and Luango coast
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the Abbe
Proyart in the second half of the eighteenth century had
written disparagingly of the Portuguese as very anti-Christian
in their dealings with the natives. On the other hand, since
Captain Maxwell's survey of the Lower Congo in 1796, Great
Britain had kept an eye on the Congo. British naval force in
an increasing degree down to 1875 had administered rough
justice between traders and merchants on the Lower Congo, and
had lost some lives and expended much powder and shot
in putting down the slave trade and the misdeeds of piratical
natives. Stanley, moreover, though calling himself an
American, was known to be a Welshman, and it was not
conceived possible that the King of the Belgians could really
be shaping a Belgian colony, or that any idea of a "huge
Liberia" — an immense Native State in the Congo basin — was
feasible. Stanley therefore, on returning in 1879, could only
be working for Great Britain in disguise. Already France was
in the field on the Upper Congo in the person of De Brazza.
The Portuguese, moreover, were doggedly determined either
by agreement with Great Britain or with France that they
would at any rate extend their rule up to the south bank of the
Lower Congo.
Then there was the great Dutch trading- house, which
since 1869 had grown to be the strongest commercial organiza-
tion on the Lower Congo. The Dutch resented the idea of
Portuguese annexation lest it should mean the extension of
that fiscal system which so cruelly fettered the trade of Angola.
They hoped perhaps that in the clash of big nations Holland
might be allowed to re-establish herself on that West African
coast which she had abandoned as a ruling power in 1873. 1
Then there was Germany. A German expedition had
been studying scientifically the Luango coast in the early
'seventies. German explorers had, at the same period, crossed
Tanganyika and had also penetrated southern Congoland from
the west.
So that when in 1879-80 Thomas Comber, accompanied by
Crudgington or Hartland, made his three attempts at a rush
to Stanley Pool through the Makuta district south of the
1 When the Dutch possessions on the Gold Coast were ceded to Great Britain in
return for compensation and rights in the Far East.
92 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Congo, he met with marked hostility on the part of the
suspicious natives of the Makuta country, where resided
the leading middlemen who traded between Stanley Pool
and San Salvador. On his third attempt to get to Tungwa
and beyond, in August 1880, Comber though thwarted in
this intention turned to the south and on the edge of
the Zombo plateau discovered the magnificent Arthington
Falls. The River Mbidizi or Mbirizi (Ambriz) descends
tumultously and in several magnificent straight plunges of
.' ' s I " ' .
f ' 1
39. THE MBIDIZI OR MBIRIZI RIVER BELOW THE ARTHINGTON FALLS
1 50-300 feet, a thousand feet in all, to the coastal plain. These
falls are only thirty miles from San Salvador, and should
be a magnificent reservoir of power for future Congo
industries.
Not easily daunted, Comber and Hartland started again for
Makuta and Stanley Pool in the late autumn of 1880. In one
of Bwaka-matu's towns, six miles beyond Tungwa, he and
Hartland (their carriers all but one Cameroons attendant had
long since abandoned them) were attacked with stones and
sticks, and at last had to run for their lives. Shots were fired
at them, and Comber was struck by a bullet in the middle of
the back. He fell ; after a minute's hesitation the people
rushed up to despatch him. But the bullet fortunately had not
>;*,^^^%'
^g2':" ;: :--l?«^-'--c!*:
40. THE SHORE OF LEOPOLDVILLE, STANLEY POOL, IN 1 883
Sketch by (he author.
SAN SALVADOR AND STANLEY POOL 95
penetrated to the lungs. Therefore Comber after the first
shock picked himself up, and he and Hartland ran for their
lives literally for miles, only dropping into a walk as they
passed through villages which had not yet heard the news.
They were repeatedly fired at and attacked with stones and
knives, but managed to out-distance their pursuers and regain
the town of Tungwa. Here, though no attention was paid to
them, they dared not wait. Rivers had to be swum or forded.
In one place a kindly woman gave them a drink of water and
a little cassava. Their one faithful negro companion was
a Cameroons boy who had been a personal attendant of
Comber for some years. Although the white men were
wounded, either with sticks, stones, knives, or a bullet, they
covered eighty miles in three days and a half. No sooner was
Comber's bullet extracted than he went down with the first
recorded case of black-water fever amongst Congo missionaries.
Curiously enough, the chief of Makuta— Bwaka-matu — who
had ordered these attacks on the white men, fell sick, and in
seven months died. The chief of Tungwa, the town where
the hostility had begun, also died, together with a number of
important men of the district. Finally smallpox came and
devastated the whole region. Naturally, these coincidences
suggested to some of the superstitious natives that attacks on
missionaries were the forerunners of ill-luck.
But while Comber still pegged away unsuccessfully at the
southern route (he attempted this journey no less than thirteen
times), Bentley and Crudgington resolved to make their attempt
at Stanley Pool along the north bank of the Congo. Stanley
had opened up the road past the cataracts as far as Isangila,
and De Brazza had just come down along the north bank from
Stanley Pool, the first European after Stanley to see that
wonderful portal beyond the cataracts through which the
traveller emerges, water-borne, to steam, sail, or row over nine
thousand miles of navigable rivers. Grenfell had reached
Musuko and San Salvador in 1880. In 1881 Bentley 1 was free
to take up the role of avant-courier.
He and his companion Crudgington crossed over to Vivi
and journeyed along the north bank of the Congo through the
1 Ever since in 1879 Robert Arthington had offered the cost of a steamer for
the Upper Congo and a fund for her maintenance, the missionaries at San Salvador
had chafed at their detention in the region of the known. But, as Bentley subse-
quently wrote : —
"The time spent at San Salvador before the other road to the Pool opened was
not in any way lost time ; it gave us an opportunity for that quiet study of the
language which furnished so much power in our work afterwards."
96 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
country of the Basundi and Babwende to Stanley Pool. The
journey there and back again to Vivi — about five hundred
miles — was performed in forty-three days. With the exception
of De Brazza, they were the first Europeans to visit Stanley
Pool since its discovery by Stanley in 1876.
Bentley and Crudgington met with a very hostile reception
at Nshasa on the south shore of the Pool, but a fairly friendly
one from Ngaligma at Ntamo or Kintamo, on the site of the
modern capital of Leopoldville. They were badly received at
Nshasa by the wild Lali people because it was thought they
were forerunners of Stanley's expedition. Nshasa or Kinshasa
had been visited by De Brazza 1 in 1 880-1. He had placed a
Senegalese sergeant (Malamine) and one or two men there,
and had warned the people that Stanley, the representative of
another race of white people, was coming up the Congo to
take the country, and that they, the people of Nshasa, belonged
to France, and were resolutely to refuse any other protectors.
1 Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza was an Italian, possibly of Venetian origin, whose
family originally came from the island of Brazza, off the Dalmatian coast. He was
actually born in 1852 on a vessel in the harbour of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but entered
the French Navy in 1870 and became naturalized as a Frenchman. His subsequent
career as a French explorer and administrator is well known, as well as that of his
brother, Jean. He was a man — especially where negroes were concerned — of most
winning personality, able to create in a short time quite a feeling of devotion to
himself and his ideas.
A
CHAPTER VII
GRENFELL'S FIRST JOURNEY BEYOND
STANLEY POOL
the result of the Bentley-Crudgington journey came
the strong desire to establish as quickly as possible a
mission station on the shores of Stanley Pool which
might be made the base for operations along the thousands
of miles of navigable waterway in the heart of Africa to
which Stanley Pool is the entrance. The news of their suc-
cessful and rapid trip to Stanley Pool produced from their
enthusiastic supporters in England a steel boat known as the
Plymouth, which, sent out in sections, was put together on
the Congo in the cataract region above Isangila, where there
is a stretch of ninety miles of navigable river as far as Man-
yanga, a notable help in those days in the transport of goods
over the nearly three hundred miles of mountainous country
that lay between Vivi or Matadi (in communication with the sea)
and Stanley Pool. Comber, Grenfell, and Bentley performed
a series of rapid journeys backwards and forwards between
Manyanga (in the middle of the cataract region)- and Musuko,
and founded a station called Wathen (after Sir Charles Wathen,
of Bristol) on the south bank of the Congo, opposite the
modern French frontier post of Manyanga.
In 1 88 1-2 Grenfell returned to England, and stayed there
to superintend the construction of the Mission steamer Peace,
which the late Robert Arthington had provided in addition to
the steel sailing-boat, the Plymouth, given by Plymouth sup-
porters of the mission. The Peace, in which so many famous
journeys were made in Congo exploration with Grenfell as the
captain, and with many a great Congo explorer — von Francois,
Wissmann, Sims, Crampel, Vangele, and Mense — as a guest,
was seventy feet long and ten feet six inches broad. She was
divided into seven watertight compartments of Bessemer steel
coated with zinc ; was flat-bottomed, or at any rate with a keel
only three inches deeper than the sides, and drew no more than
i.— h 97
9 8 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
eighteen inches with six tons of cargo on board. Her ordinary
speed was nine miles an hour, which could under pressure be
increased to twelve.
All the parts of this steamer had to be constructed (a
necessity new in those days) in parcels, of which the heaviest
must not exceed 65 pounds, so that it could be carried on a
man's head. Three special loads, however, were of greater
weights, ranging from 112 pounds to 250 pounds. These,
where it was absolutely necessary, had to be slung to long
poles, the ends of which were carried on the shoulders of
porters. Of course the whole of the steamer loads could
be conveyed by ships from England to Underhill (the new
mission station founded in 1882 at the end of Lower Congo
navigability, near the present town of Matadi), and after
they had been transported mainly by porters and perhaps
here and there by vehicles over Stanley's rough road round
the cataracts to Isangila they could avail themselves of
boats and steamers already plying on the ninety miles of
navigable water between Isangila and Manyanga. Thence
onwards was a terrible region along- the south bank of the
Congo, a continual up-and-down from high hills into deep
valleys and across innumerable rushing streams for some-
thing like 160 miles till the broadening waters of the Congo
were reached at the entrance into Stanley Pool. Thomas
Comber had founded the station of the Baptist Mission known
as Arthington on the western outskirts of Leopoldville, over-
looking the first great rapids of Ntamo. The Congo is here
about a mile in breadth, and the broad waters of Stanley Pool
about three miles distant. 1
George Grenfell and his wife reached Arthington in July
1883, some weeks after the present writer had left Leopoldville
to return to Europe. Leaving Mrs. Grenfell to reside at
Arthington, which was to be his headquarters for several years,
Grenfell then returned to the lower river to expedite the trans-
port of the Peace in her many sections and parcels from the
limit of ocean steamer navigation, 250 miles more or less to
Arthington on Stanley Pool. So energetic was he, and so
helped by the native chiefs and their men — a new phase
altogether, so far, in the history of Congo development — that
instead of taking two years to transport his steamer over this
distance to Stanley Pool [it had taken Stanley that time to
bring up the En Avant from Vivi to Leopoldville, but then
1 Stanley Pool is approximately eighteen miles long and fourteen miles broad.
It was first correctly surveyed and mapped by Comber and Bentley in 1883.
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41. After a journey in B.M.S.S. Peace, Paul Crampel, the famous French explorer, who made important discoveries in the hasin of the Sanga, dedicated
his map of the Cameroons-Congo hinterland to Grenfell. Crampel was assisted hy Grenfell to ascend the Mubangi. He was the first explorer to
penetrate from the Congo basin to that of Lake Chad, and was killed in Baghirmi in 1800.
ioo GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Stanley had had to make roads and fight the white man's battle
with stubborn savages], Grenfell accomplished his task in a
little over four months. The result was the Mission enter-
prise was caught napping, and a considerable interval of time
elapsed before the engineers ordered from England for the
construction of the Peace could arrive at Stanley Pool. After
making every preparation for the accommodation of these
engineers and for the construction of the Peace, Grenfell
decided to start on a voyage of exploration in the Peace s boat,
a whale-boat which had been sent out at the same time as the
Peace, and which was afterwards to be towed by her. (It was
in this boat that Bentley and Comber explored the Pool in the
summer of 1883.)
Before describing this first remarkable journey of explora-
tion undertaken by Grenfell alone, it might be as well to finish
the history of the little steamer in which his greatest journeys
were to be made. The engineers sent out from England to
put the Peace together got wet through in rainstorms as they
were travelling up the cataract region of the Congo, and died
after a few days' illness. When Grenfell returned from his
boat journey up to the Equator he determined to construct the
Peace himself. To assist him he had nine negro artisans from
Sierra Leone, Accra, Cameroons, and Fernando P6. 1 On the
13th of June 1884 the Peace was successfully launched, and
performed a trial trip at the rate of ten knots an hour. Gren-
fell's assiduous watching of her construction at Chiswick, on
the Thames, together with his experience as a young man
(before entering the Baptist Mission) in purchasing and in
inspecting machinery for a firm at Birmingham stood him in
good stead. At the same time he was not a professional
mechanician, and the successful construction of the Peace under
such circumstances and with only the unskilled aid of the
negro carpenters shows that he was a man of unusual intelli-
gence and energy.
His first exploring journey on the Upper Congo commenced
on January 28 1884 in a small whale-boat which belonged to
the equipment of the Peace and which was manned by five Kru
boatmen. 2 Two Congo servants were taken as well, to cook
1 Oskar Baumann in his book on Fernando P6 remarks that Grenfell was the
only European who inspired enough confidence in the suspicious natives of that
island to induce one of their race to accompany him to the Upper Congo.
2 Between 1878 and 1885 the Baptist missionaries had to rely much on Kru
labour from Liberia for porterage and boating work. The " Kruboys " are the real
Liberians, the seafaring natives of the " Grain Coast" who have never been slaves and
who despite some faults have been faithful allies of the white man in the development
of West Africa.
\5°ZQ'
t
STANLEY POOL
from a. Sinrvey "by- the
REV. G. GRENFELL
&"%j**
-/o
.20
io2 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
for the Kru boys and the white men. Five hundred brass rods,
the then well-recognized staple of barter, and a box of cloth,
knives, looking-glasses, and beads were taken for the purchase
of food or the giving of presents on the way. Provisions laid
in by the party consisted of chikwanga, 1 a bag of rice for the
men, Epps's cocoa, 2 tea, sugar, and a small supply of medicine.
The first part of the journey from the shore below the
station of Arthington to the open waters of the Pool was a
long and tedious pull for the rowers, out of all proportion to
the actual distance. The entrance into the Pool was round a
sharp bluff, christened in the beginning of 1883 Kallina Point. 8
On the opposite shores to the north, two miles away, was the
then recently founded French station of Brazzaville, at that
time a collection of tumble-down huts half buried in grass and
bananas. The bank beyond Brazzaville was steep for a few
miles, like that of the south shore as far as Nshasa Point.
Then it rapidly sank to a marshy level as the shores retreated
on either side from the eye, while the Pool broadened out
almost into a vast circle, the extent being indicated here and
there not by any water horizon (for the water surface was
broken by a great central island and many islets), but by the tops
of distant hills. Far away to the north-east gleamed the semicircle
of white, sandy cliffs named by Stanley after those of Dover.
1 Chikwanga during the early 'eighties was the principal article of food to be
obtained on the Congo. It was like sour, glutinous dough, and was made from the
pounded roots of the manioc or cassava. It is usually now known as Ktvanga
without the Swahili prefix.
2 The Baptist Mission on Stanley Pool in these days of the early 'eighties was
hospitable to many an exhausted traveller who came their way, independent of
nationality, colour, or religion. They were not over-well supplied with European
food, but managed to get up a large stock of Epps's cocoa and Huntley and Palmer's
biscuits. This cocoa boiled with goats' milk was indeed, as the old advertisements
ran, "grateful, comforting." Many a visitor to the station of Arthington or a sick
man at the adjoining Belgian camp at Le"opoldville (including the present writer) has
been nursed back to health and soundness by the cocoa and biscuits offered at a
critical moment by Comber, Grenfell, or Bentley.
3 Lieutenant Kallina was an Austro-Hungarian subject engaged for the African
International Association. He was filled with a great ambition to be a Congo ex-
plorer, and if possible to get ahead of Stanley in the expected revelations of the
interior basin of the river. Stanley had already ordered the founding of stations for
his Committee in 1882 as far up the Congo as Mswata, near the Kwa mouth, and at
Bolobo ; but he had left behind him orders that a further advance was to be delayed
until he should return from Europe and the construction of his new steamer, the
A. I. A., should be finished ; for he feared the rash handling of the wild natives by his
subordinates. But Lieutenant Kallina cared little for obeying orders. He obtained a
native canoe, and started away to enter Stanley Pool and pass to the unknown upper
river. The current of the Congo after it leaves the Pool and before it plunges over
the first rapids is very strong, and as Lieutenant Kallina rounded the bluff at the exit
from the Pool his canoe capsized. His memory is retained in the geographical name
of Kallina Point, and for some months this point was almost the ne plus ultra of all
who were not able to make use of a large boat or steamer.
FIRST JOURNEY BEYOND STANLEY POOL 103
As one rows or steams across Stanley Pool the course
follows almost perforce the southern shore of the central island
of Bamu, as the northern passage on the other side of that
island is strewn with many sandbanks and shallows. The pre-
sent writer was taken by the northern route when he crossed
the Pool in the
early part of
1883, as the
journey was
made in canoes,
and the canoe-
men preferred
the smoother
water, where
one was safer
from the attacks
of hippopotami.
But as Grenfell
remarks in his
notes on his first
journey, the
traveller is not
conscious of the
great expanse
of the Pool as
he makes this
journey along
the coast of
Bamu Island :
he seems mere-
ly to be tra-
versing a some-
what broader
expanse of the
Congo.
As you approach the further, the northern or eastern end of
Stanley Pool the scenery becomes very beautiful. On the
west is a range of bold and picturesque heights, the flanks of
which are — or were — covered with dense, dark green forest.
In the middle distance, a spit — really a series of flat islands —
extends from the hilly eastern shore, and these promontories of
low land are dotted with groves of fine and spreading trees
which stand out in vivid summer green against the background
of blue hills. Here and there is a graceful fan palm. As one
42. THE WOODED BANKS OF THE CONGO BETWEEN STANLEY
POOL AND THE KWA JUNCTION, RISING TO ABOUT
800 FEET ABOVE THE STREAM LEVEL
io 4 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
emerges from the Pool to ascend the narrowing Congo, the
hills on the east rise to a height of nearly a thousand feet sheer
up from the banks of the river, and are clothed with splendid
hanging forests.
The scenery of wood and water is diversified all round the
shores of the Pool by the multitudes of water-birds, especially
the flocks of white egrets. When one has entered the main
stream of the Congo both above and below the Pool, water-
birds are scarce so long as the current is swift and the banks
are steep.
Grenfell describes thus the scenery of the gorge of the
upper river north of Stanley Pool : —
" Steep, tree-clad hills of a thousand feet or so on either bank of the
vast, rushing Congo reflected their dark green hues in its waters,
making in the evening light so sombre a picture that one could well
excuse [if the mystery had not been already solved] a superstitious
dread of attempting to penetrate the unknown through such an un-
propitious-looking gate. ... So it was when I first saw it, the effect
being partly due to the contrast between the brilliantly white Dover
Cliffs [the glistening sandbanks which we have just left] and the sober
hues of the tree-clad hills which rise almost precipitously from the
water's edge."
Along this relatively narrow gorge of the Congo, between
Stanley Pool and the mouth of the Kwa, Grenfell was careful
to note the position of the reefs of hard sandstone so that he
might have some knowledge of the river when he should
navigate his steamer later on ; for he guessed rightly that this
portion of the Congo course is dangerous in parts to navigation
from the submerged reefs and isolated hummocks of rock.
Above the junction of the main Congo with the Kwa the hills
on either side of the great river decrease in height and stretch
away in divergent lines to the east and west, while the river
broadens out to three miles wide.
Near the shore this part of the Congo bristles with rocks,
but is almost without islands. In fact, had Grenfell been travel-
ling in a wooden boat (especially as he was without a practised
pilot) he could scarcely have survived the bumps he received
from unsuspected reefs and jagged rocks or concealed snags, or
from the attacks of hippopotami. The present writer made
this ascent of the river as far as Bolobo a year before Grenfell's
attempt, in one of Stanley's steel boats, but some months after-
wards had to descend the river in a native canoe. Two other
canoes went with him, one containing men in the service of
Stanley's expedition, and the other his own servants and
FIRST JOURNEY BEYOND STANLEY POOL 105
baggage. The foremost of the three canoes was upset by a
hippopotamus in the middle of the Congo, and none of its
occupants were seen again, having probably been dragged
below by crocodiles. The traveller was thus presented with a
most disagreeable alternative in canoe-travelling. If he paddled
close inshore he was liable to be attacked and swamped by
a hippopotamus. If on the other hand the canoe was directed
out into the centre of the course of this enormous river it
might very well be capsized by the swirling, racing, eddying
>?
43. THE ROCKY POINTS OR REEFS WHICH STRETCH OUT INTO THE CONGO
OR KASAI AND OFTEN CAUSE STEAMERS TO COME TO GRIEF
current, and of course the Congo in mid-stream was very deep
and swarming with crocodiles.
Grenfell called in at Bolobo, which had not long before
been the easternmost of Stanley's stations. This was one of a
series of Bayanzi or Babangi trading towns along the east bank,
the people of which were very turbulent, and at that time not at
all well disposed towards the settlement of Europeans. They had
in fact stopped the present writer from proceeding further on his
journey in the previous year. But since then Stanley had passed
up-river, making light of their opposition, and had founded a suc-
cession of stations on the main stream all the way to the Stanley
Falls, especially at Lukolela, at " Equatorville " (the point where
the Equator cut the Congo, since named Coquilhatville), and at
Bangala, nearly two degrees north of the Equator.
io6 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
The river banks of the Congo, north of the Kwa conflu-
ence, were at that time chiefly settled by the enterprising
Babangi people, also known as Bayanzi — the name applied to
them by the Ba-Kongo, while they are known to the Bateke
as " Babaho." 1
At Lukolela, a station which Stanley had founded in the
autumn of 1883, Grenfell met a young Yorkshireman named
E.J. Glave, who was afterwards to become famous for a remark-
able trans-African journey which he performed in 1892-3 as a
correspondent of The Century Magazine and other American
journals. 2
Above Bolobo, except opposite Lukolela and Ngombe, the
Congo is exceedingly broad — perhaps seven to twenty miles in
places. This is the region Grenfell describes as :
" a great central swamp which extends east and west, with occasional
short breaks, for about seven, hundred miles. . . . The opposite bank of
the river cannot be seen, it is often below the horizon, beyond a wilder-
ness of shallow water and low, sandy islands, some of which are covered
with a dense vegetation. Even the tall trees are crowned and draped
with beautiful creepers. There is much Usnea lichen. A narrow
channel, seldom more than two hundred yards wide, separates the bank
from the islands. Through this one picks one's way with difficulty, often
through herds of hippos, which bellow and grunt in the most threatening
manner. . . . The islands at which one stops to pass the night are re-
garded by the hippopotami as their private property. On this, first
journey the hippos would boldly assail our camp. The boys attempted
to drive them off by hurling firewood at them, but as this did not
deter them I was obliged to shoot, with the result that the natives
passing by the next morning found to their surprise some tons of fresh
meat lying on the sandbank."
Whilst on this boat journey Grenfell stopped at the newly
founded " Equator Station" ("situated on another ridge beside
the river, about thirty feet high, a ridge extending for some
1 The Bateke are the dominant race on the river banks at Stanley Pool and thence
northwards to the Kwa confluence, and further north still on the western shore. They
are connected linguistically with the tribes of the upper Ogowe and of the lower
Kasai, Kwango, Kwilu, and Lukenye. They have many peculiar customs of their
own, and are a well-marked group. The Bayanzi or Babangi speak a Bantu language
which is less corrupt than that of the Bateke, a little more like the eastern Bantu
tongues. They are the people of the lower Mubangi, and the great commercial race
of the broad, lake-like region of the western Upper Congo, ranging between the
Mangala country on the east, about as far as 20 Long. E., and the Kwa mouth and
Stanley Pool on the west, where in former days they and the Bateke used to meet
the Congo settlers from San Salvador and the coast region and exchange the ivory
and slaves of the Upper Congo for .the trade goods of the Europeans brought up by
the Congo middlemen.
2 He died of malarial fever at Underhill, at the house of the Rev. Lawson
Forfeitt, Secretary to the Baptist Mission, in 1895. His papers were published in
1806.
Note ;— It was probably the northern or Ibenga Channel which was entered by Grenfell in his whaleboat on Feb. 20, '84.
FIRST JOURNEY BEYOND STANLEY POOL 107
ten miles . . . houses built of sun-dried bricks. . . . Stanley's
people under two Belgian officers had only been here some
eight months, but already there were European vegetables
growing in the garden "). From this station he struck across
to the west bank at Bulungu, and coasted along it till (about
February 20th 1884) by accident or design he struck the mouth
— or the northernmost mouth — of the Mubangi, here more
properly styled the Liboko River. This river, like the Sanga
close by (further to the south), enters the main Congo in a kind
of delta, a confused labyrinth of islands and sandbanks. In the
delta of this river he found wild coffee growing, and brought
down seeds which were subsequently planted at Leopoldville.
On the Lower Mubangi the natives were acquainted with
the coffee shrub (for the sweet pulp surrounding its berries) and
called it " Musa saku."
After noting the Mubangi confluence Grenfell apparently
visited the extensive delta of the Sanga River, where he also
found wild coffee growing. His few notes on the Sanga are
not dated, and it is not certain that they apply entirely to this
first boat journey when he was hazy as to the separate identity
of the Sanga 1 and Mubangi.
On the 4th of March 1884 Grenfell returned to Arthington
(Stanley Pool), having only occupied five weeks on this
adventurous boat journey, which had at any rate resulted in
drawing attention to the existence of the greatest tributary the
Congo possesses — so far as length of course is concerned. His
elation at his discovery, however, was damped by the gloomy
news awaiting his return. As already stated, the two engineers
who had come out to build the Peace, together with a mission-
ary colleague, Hartley, were all dead.
1 The Sanga River politically is one of the most important affluents of the Congo.
It is navigable from its junction with the main Congo as far north as the fourth
degree of N. latitude, or, in other words, the hinterland of the Cameroons and the
south-east of Adamawa. The river was reported in 1885 by the brothers Jean and
Savorgnan de Brazza, and was actually discovered and mapped by Cholet and
Fourneau in 1890--91 : by Mizon, S. de Brazza, Clozel, and others, between 1892 and
1895. It was also reached by various German explorers from the Cameroons. When
the German Government concluded its frontier arrangement with France in 1894 it
arranged to bring the frontier of the Cameroons colony to the Ngoko affluent of the
Sanga (which rises within three hundred miles of the Cameroons coast) and also to
the main stream of the Sanga. Thus Germany has a corner of the Congo basin,
and can claim the right to navigate the Congo and its affluents.
CHAPTER VIII
THE DISCOVERY OF THE MUBANGI
ON the 7th of July 1884 the Peace had been put together,
and Grenfell started with Comber on a five weeks'
prospecting tour in the new steamer. In two days from
Arthington they reached the vicinity of Mswata, and in another
day had anchored opposite the new international station at the
mouth of the Kwa. This river seemed in those days the most
significant of the Congo's tributaries, though its full importance
was not realized even then. Politically, it has lost place in
favour of the Mubangi, which is far more likely to prove in the
future as well as in the present an important line of political and
ethnographical definition.
Although the Kwa where it enters the main Congo is of dis-
appointing width, it is of astonishing depth and volume — scarcely
less in these respects than the Congo itself. Grenfell and
Comber therefore resolved to see if they could not arrive at
more important results than Stanley had done a few months
previously when he had explored the Kwa as far as the conflu-
ence of the Kwango-Kasai and the Mfini, but had unaccountably
decided that the Mfini was the main stream and had followed
this up till he entered Lake Leopold II. 1 Grenfell writes on
the 24th of August 1884 : —
" The Kwa for the first thirty miles has a mean course of N.E.
between steep grass and scrub-covered hills of from 200 to 500 feet
1 Stanley on his original journey in 1877 discovered the confluence of the Kwa
with the Congo, and jumped to the conclusion — quite rightly — that it was the outlet of
the Kwango, but it never occurred to him to suppose that this narrow-mouthed tribu-
tary could likewise be the outlet of the mighty River Kasai, a river which had been
discovered by Portuguese explorers at the end of the eighteenth century, but redis-
covered and announced by Livingstone, and crossed in its upper waters by Cameron
and Pogge prior to 1876. Stanley imagined that the Kasai found its outlet into the
Congo through the much less important Busira-Juapa stream at Equator Station. He
named this the Buruki or Muhindu, and attributed to it a greater breadth than it
possessed. The Kwa he styled the Ibari-Nkutu, but afterwards adopted the name
Bochini, which was introduced by Comber. The best term for the joint outlet of the
Kwango-Kwilu-Mfini-Lukenye-Kasai-Lulua-Sankuru would seem to be the simple
native name of Kwa.
108
THE DISCOVERY OF THE MUBANGI 109
high, with narrow fringes of timber at the water's edge and in the valleys.
Along this reach of the river, which has a width varying from a quarter
to three-quarters of a mile, navigation involves great care, by reason of
the many rocky reefs which stretch out into nearly mid-stream. . . .
Where the course changes near the friendly town of Bo, the river takes
upon itself the character of the higher reaches of the Congo, widening
out among sandbanks and islands into lake-like expansions of from
two to five miles wide and five to fifteen miles long. . . . On its
banks are wild vines with edible fruit, African nutmegs, cotton, orange
trees, cucumbers, and jatropha."
Some fifty miles from Kwamouth they reached the country
of the Babuma, the natives and dialect of which were first
described by the writer of this book, who saw specimens of the
Babuma on the Congo near the mouth of the Kwa in 1883.
They were a friendly people — in those days — towards white
men, and were most of them grouped under the rule of a
powerful chieftainess, Nga-Nkabi.
Having investigated the confluence of the Kwango with the
main Kasai (though they did not guess at the identity of the
latter river then), they thus carried Congo exploration a little in
advance of Stanley, who hitherto had only revealed the exist-
ence of the Mfini and of Lake Leopold II. They then returned
to the main Congo and resumed their ascent of that river. Past
the well-known native settlement of Chumbiri or Tsumbidi they
noticed a remarkably stony hill, one of a series stretching north-
wards on either side of the main Congo, from two hundred to
seven hundred feet high, mostly on the northern or western
bank — hills differing from the smoothly rounded, sandy hum-
mocks further to the west. 1
Above Chumbiri's they came in sight of " Lone Island,"
which though apparently standing all by itself was found by
them to be "only the first of the countless islands which are
an ever-present feature of the river from this point to Stanley
Falls."
Hereabout, too, they exchanged the deep water and the
dangerous reefs and rocks for shallows and sandbanks so
numerous and channels so intricate that they often lost sight of
the mainland and had to rely on their compass for the course.
1 These stony hills would seem to be the vestiges of the ancient plateau not
completely worn away or silted over by the waters of the vast Congo basin ; which at
one time filled up the central depression of the southern half of Africa with a fresh-
water lake vaster probably than any other the world has known, a lake at least six
times the size of the present Victoria Nyanza, of which the only remains are the
broad course of the Upper Congo, lakes Ntomba and Leopold, and a lake or swamp
at the head of the scarcely explored Lukenye River.
no GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
■Wl'l"- ;
m
: ;
"The current certainly tells us 1 whether we are going up or down,
but when the channel is two miles wide, to go up or down is not always
sufficient. It is important to steer a straight course and hit the right
bank, and not to wander about in a maze at haphazard, and find one-
self in the wrong channel. After thirty miles or so among these
islands and sandbanks, the hills once more approach the river, and on
the slope of these hills on the eastern bank, ranging for about a couple
of miles, we find
-; - ' ■: • : .;' ,'• . •: ;' : ,- ,' . t -J, J 4 „f i ./ -; ; -, tile BolobotOWnS,
. . ■ • ■ -••':.: ; . V t • j *fi f I * I ■ -. of which Ibaka
;, 'i-: ' . ■■ ' ; is the supreme
' :' ••-'.. ' i'-v -i r i .' .'' 4 **^ J *.i '•' ,' ;• ' -." : ,• chief. . . .
.'-••'» • ' • r ;, ""■ ■ •• " ; ; I < -/i i ; -. ; . J ' : ," / "In ,Bolobo, as
; ';••--' - , -'.'.' ;'-M" ; . •• , ; ' ' •-! '■ ■ ■-•*■''"."" •■" ' '■ m Chumbiri, the
; .- " ' : : ' . ... .. ^ :" *' ff ; "' ' : ■. ■ i ■' } :.* - ; , f : - 5 ." inhabitants are
» * •* I V.|..i f i'-^ . » •; f~ .' -i : Bayanzi, or as
they call them-
selves, the Boban-
gi people. In ad-
jacent Moye we
find Banunu peo-
ple, the Banunu
being probably
the indigenous
race. Inland are
said to be the
Batende. Bolobo
has about two
miles of villages
composing its
town. Moye is
rather bigger than
Bolobo, and its
villages, each un--
der its separate
chieftain, extend
further back from
the river, and
higher up the
sides of the ioo-
feet hill which
backs them. Between Bolobo and Moye there is frequently enmity,
and one can generally reckon too on internal dissensions in each
district, one chief of Bolobo frequently not being on speaking terms
with his fellow-chief. Although Ibaka is the special, and perhaps
biggest chief of Bolobo (being the white man's chief or friend), he is
not by any means the only one. There are in all eighty chiefs ! The
chief characteristics of Bolobo people appear to be drunkenness,
immorality, and cruelty, out of each of which vices spring actions
1 The passages that follow are from a report jointly written by Grenfell and
Comber in the archives of the Baptist Missionary Society.
44.
THE "LONE ISLAND" WHERE THE CONGO BROADENS,
NEAR CHUMBIRI : SKETCHED BY THE AUTHOR
THE DISCOVERY OF THE MUBANGI in
almost too fearful to describe. In hearing of these, one living out here
almost gets to feel like calling the people terrible brutes and wretches,
rather than poor miserable heathen. The light of their consciences
must condemn them in most of their sins.
" On the afternoon of our arrival, accompanied by Lieut. Liebrechts, 1
of the Association Internationale, we walked through all the towns of
Bolobo and Moye. In Bolobo it was a great day, a gala day indeed.
The wife of one of the chiefs had died somewhere away, and, of course,
there must be four or five days and nights of orgies — any amount of
dirty sugar-cane-beer swilling, unbridled licence in every species of
sensuality, and a grand finale of four human sacrifices, each victim
being a poor wretch of a slave bought for the purpose ! Drums beat-
ing briskly, circles of ' fine ' women, wearing the heavy brass collar
(25 to 30 lb.), dancing and clapping rhythmically, and plenty of people
in all the streets. The victims were tied up somewhere ; of course,
they would not tell us where ; they were said to be apathetically and
stolidly awaiting their fate — bowstring or knife — both being Bobangi
ways of killing. Remonstrances and pleadings on behalf of these poor
victims were all in vain.
" Naturally, in walking through these towns, we tried to make
friends with the people as much as possible. We know scarcely any of
their language, and can do very little with them on these first short
prospecting visits. . . .
" From Bolobo we steamed on past some very pretty hill scenery,
passing Moye Nkunju and Sakamimbe, charmingly situated on spurs
of rocky, tree-clad hills, and prettily embowered in trees. These
people seem to have picked all the best sites. For the whole of the
distance, 100 miles, we saw absolutely nothing of the opposite bank
of the great river we were ascending ; but, keeping somewhere
near the eastern shore, and a general north-east direction, we passed
among the islands in channels of from 150 to 1,500 yards wide, water
generally shallow. Towns very few. As we approached Lukolela on
the third day, we found the current much stronger ; and at last, the first
time for 120 miles, we saw the opposite shore. Just above Lukolela
the river narrows from its hitherto unknown width, to a mile and
a half.
" Lukolela was fixed upon as the site for our first new mission
station. The whole of Lukolela and its vicinity is the densest forest.
From the water's edge the ground gently slopes to a height of about
sixty feet. Giants of trees abound — cotton trees, African teak, etc. —
with a girth that takes the edge off your axe almost at sight of it. . . .
" The villages of Lukolela are smaller and somewhat more
scattered than those of Bolobo and other Bobangi towns, although
Lukolela people too belong to the same enterprising tribe. . . .
"Leaving Lukolela on July 23 (1884), we slept just below Ngombe,
which we reached early the following morning. Here the river narrows
again, having expanded, as usual, below the two places. Opposite
Ngombe, a little above, is the Mubangi River, evidently a considerable
body of water, of a light cafe-au-lait colour ; contrasting strongly, and
for many miles refusing to mix with the dark brown water of the main
1 Now Secretary of the Interior in the Congo State Government. (H. H. J.)
ii2 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
river. The two bodies of water flow side by side, always with a great
deal of commotion and splashing waves at their edges of contact, as if
jostling each other on their way down. 1 The same is very noticeable,
too, at the Lulongo River much higher up, the water of which, flowing
alongside that of the big river, is inky black.
" About twelve miles further on we came to a splendid set of towns,
viz. Butunu, Boshende, and Ilebo. In these settlements, especially the
last two, which are separated from each other by about a mile of bush,
we have probably the densest population yet seen by us on the Congo,
not excluding Bangala towns. The people literally swarmed, the crowd
coming to one point of beach numbering about five hundred people.
Here, as at Ngombe, and at most towns as far as Liboko, there are
45. FIRST BAPTIST MISSION-HOUSE AT LUK.0LELA
isolated stretches of rocky banks where the overlying soil seems par-
ticularly fertile, and where the people have built. Sometimes this rocky
bank, washed by the current, assumes the form of a squared and arti-
ficially constructed quay for distances of twenty to fifty yards. The
towns, especially the Ilebo ones, go back extensively, away from the
river, an unusual thing, as if the suitable building land along the river
front was not sufficient for the people. . . .
" At Ilebo we slept, after going on shore to make friends
with the people. . . . Walking about the towns, we found each
chief sitting on his stool outside his house, ready to give us a
welcoming shake of the hands. . . . Mayongo, chief of Boshende,
1 Grenfell noted on this journey that the colour of the Mubangi was light brick-
red or pinkish ochre, and that its islands and shores were heavily timbered. Vide
note on p. 116.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE MUBANGI 113
and Ipaka of Ilebo, as well as almost every friendly-disposed man
of importance, from Chumbiri up to Liboko, were very desirous to
seal friendship by the
ceremony of blood -
brotherhood, which,
among the Ilebo, Bo-
bangi, and Bangala
people, is very com-
mon ; but the rite is
so meaningless and
empty, and appears to
have no binding force,
that up to the present
we have always re-
fused to drink blood
with anyone ; and our
arms, unlike those of a
few upper-river travel-
lers, and notably the
arms of all Ilebo and
Bangala chiefs, are not
covered with a lot of
marks, the scars of
blood-brotherhood. . . .
" The Congo equa-
torial towns are divided
up into districts as fol-
lows : Bujungi, Mbon-
go, Inganda, and
Bwangata. 1 ... At
Mbongo the people
seemed very rudely
bold and troublesome
. . . almost as though
they wanted to fight us
because we would not
stop and go ashore at
their rocky beaches.
Inganda was especially
interesting to us, be-
cause our Livingstone
Inland Mission breth-
ren are going to build
there. These people
about the great Ruki
Y er . . are niOSt 46, BAPULULA, A PILOT ON THE MISSION STEAMER " PEACE ' :
primitive We nave (A Mongata man recruited after Grenfell's first voyage.)
hitherto met. They
are the only people we saw who use the bow and arrow. Here too we
1 Many Bangata or Wangata men subsequently entered the service of the
Mission.
ii4 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
first saw an African shield, and found most men walking about with bows
and arrows and shields, or spears and shield, or else a murderous knife.
" That they are cruel, curiously and ingeniously cruel, we know
from the description given by Lieut. Vangele, the chief of Equatprville
Station, of the methods of execution obtaining amongst them. Certain
victims die by the knife, and others have to afford to the bloodthirsty
spectators the pleasures of the chase. These last are given a certain
start across country, and then are pursued in full cry by all the people
armed with spears and bows and arrows. An obstinate victim who will
not run well causes disappointment, but others are said to make a ' fine
run ' before they fall, pierced with arrows and spears. . . .
" The Ruki River we found to be just the magnificent affluent
Stanley has described it, quite 1,000 yards wide, and with several
islands at its embouchure. Up above the Ruki confluence we saw
Bangala towns, stretching right away to i° 50' N. (our farthest point) to
Liboko, where Stanley had his great battle in 1877. We went, however,
about forty-five miles above Equatorville before we arrived at Lulanga,
the first Bangala town on the eastern bank. After leaving the Ruki
River, until we arrived at Lulanga, we really saw no point on the
eastern shore where a town could be built : all was so low and muddy.
" At Lulanga we had our first real introduction to Bangala people,
and we found them out and out the most boisterous, wild, noisy,
troublesome, worrying lot of people either of us has ever met. We were
introduced by our friend Mangaba, of Lukolela, who all the journey had
made himself very interesting to us. Like all the Bobangi people,
Mangaba was very superstitious, and carried his fetishes with him on
board. His toilet was never complete without the application of his
face powder and rouge — not used, however, to improve the complexion,
but to make mysterious red and white (pipeclay) marks about his
body, in which his boy assisted him. A white line up his back, from
hip to left shoulder, to the left of the median line, was carried thence
along the outer part of the arm down to the hand. Red and white
lines are drawn on the left foot, ditto across the forehead, but all drawn
with the most religious care.
" To converse with these people was very difficult, but we sometimes
tried it when in the evening we had prayer and gathered round us our
boys to sing our Congo hymn. ' God hears us when we speak to Him,'
we said to Mangaba. 'Indeed!' said he, not much surprised. 'Yes,
He is our Father, and He is' very good, and loves us all very much,'
said we. But to this Mangaba objected. ' God was not very good.
Why was He always killing people (by death) ? ' And then we had to
try and explain the resurrection and the home in heaven ; but it was
difficult to remove his sceptical objections.
" We found just above Lulanga a considerable river. It is called the
Lulongo River, and is about 600 yards wide, the water being inky
black. . . .
" Mangaba informed us that Bangala was divided into five districts :
Lulanga and Bolombo on the left, and Mungundu, Bukolela, and Liboko
on the right bank.
" About twelve miles above the Lulongo River we crossed over to
the other side of the river, thus obtaining an idea of its width in this
THE DISCOVERY OF THE MUBANGI 115
place, although we crossed very obliquely. We passed three Bukolela
towns — Lobengo, Monsombe, and Bobimba, each one built on one of
the few raised plots here and there obtaining on the banks. These
banks were of clay, and from four to six feet above the water. Along
the beach were broad double ladders, a sort of landing-steps reaching
down into the river. The people here seemed quieter and milder, and
quite ready to welcome us.
" At last, on August 1, we reached Liboko, and after steaming along
seven miles of towns, more or less close to each other, we came to that
of the great chief Mata-mayiki (i.e. plenty of guns), where the Inter-
national Association has built a fine house.
"At Liboko we were half-way to Stanley Falls. On setting out
from Arthington we had given ourselves five weeks, and, had this time
been sufficient, there was nothing to prevent us going the whole distance
of 1,000 miles. There was nothing to obstruct; the road was open,
and most inviting ; the Peace working well ; the only thing which made ■
any lengthening of our journey impossible was the fact that we had
left Mrs. Grenfell alone at Arthington, and one of us was overdue to go
down to the coast and home to England. Our gang of Loangos too
were due to go home. So we had, albeit most reluctantly, to start back."
The limit of Grenfell's first exploration of the Congo by
steamer was at Liboko, which would be equivalent at the
present day to the Belgian station at Bangala. They had
entered the territory of the important Bangala tribe, 1 which
differs slightly from the Babangi of the lower Mubangi and of
the banks of the western Congo as far as Bolobo. Thence
they returned to Stanley Pool, which they reached at the
beginning of September.
On the 13th of October of the same year — 1884 — Grenfell
started on his second journey of exploration in the Peace} In
commencing his account of this, he notes a remarkable incident
in which a native fireman (probably from the Luango coast)
was rescued from a crocodile. The fireman together with other
men was enjoying a swim in the Congo after a day's hard
work. Just as he was about to enter the small boat from which,
they had dived he called out, " Help me : a crocodile has got
my hand!" His other arm was firmly seized by his com-
panions, who were very nearly dragged out of the boat by the
crocodile, while the unfortunate fireman was completely im-
mersed. A tug-of-war which lasted fully five minutes ensued
1 The Bangala people were popular from the first with all Europeans in spite of
occasional outbreaks of hostility. They are a splendid-looking race, sometimes with
really handsome faces, and almost always with bodies that are ideals of manly beauty,
the women also being attractive and well shaped. In the 'eighties of the last century
their labour was cheaper than that of any other race on the Congo, the wages asked
being not more than £2 a year !
2 His third journey up the Congo beyond Stanley Pool, the first having been
performed in a whale-boat.
n6 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
before the crocodile gave up in disgust. The fireman was
rescued from a horrible death with no worse injuries than a
lacerated hand and slight wounds on the face and leg from
which he soon recovered. 1
On this second voyage of the Peace Grenfell was accom-
panied by his wife and eldest child and by Dr. Sims of
the American Baptist Missionary Union ; also by six of the
mission-school boys. The expedition examined the lower
course of the Lefini or Lifini. [Grenfell describes the colour
of the Lefini water as slaty-blue.] They then continued the
ascent of the Congo past Bolobo to the Nkenye River, which
they explored for five days. The natives, however, were
hostile, and Dr. Sims narrowly escaped being killed by them,
so that after ascending the Nkenye for seventy miles (again
noting the number and boldness of the crocodiles) they returned
to the main Congo.
Apparently on this tour of exploration the Alima or " Mai
ma Mbosi" was visited. This river has played some part in
Congo history since the discovery of its upper waters by L. S.
de Brazza in 1878 turned his attention to his Congo "pounce"
in 1880. In its upper waters it is called Leketi, in its lower
course Mbosi ; and here, according to Grenfell, its current flows
at the rate of 250 feet a minute. In the Bokangani country,
through which the Mai ma Mbosi or lower Alima flows, there
is a mixture of the Babangi and Bateke people and a corres-
ponding mixture of dialects. This land is remarkable (writes
Grenfell) for its enormous quantities of Raphia palms, called
locally Mbadi or Lofandi. Their fir-cone-like fruits have an
oil that is present in the outer husk, an oil in which the Bokan-
gani people trade. The inner nut is burnt for salt.
On his two previous journeys it is clear that Grenfell had
not attached overmuch importance to his discovery of the
Mubangi mouth, 2 for in October 1884 he writes that he had
1 In those days, and at the time when the present writer was on the Congo, the
crocodiles were exceedingly bold in their attacks on Europeans and natives, not
having sufficiently realized the effect of firearms. The present writer has endured an
occasional half-hour of disagreeable suspense whilst his frail canoe, paddled by two
anxious men, has been followed by a huge crocodile, which seemed at intervals to be
preparing to jump out of the water and on to the canoe. But for the rate at which
the canoe travelled it would probably have effected its purpose.
2 Of late the priority of discovery of the Mubangi by Grenfell has been disputed
by certain Belgian writers in favour of Capt. Haussens, who with one or more Belgian
companions certainly entered the Mubangi delta on April 20th 1884. But these
writers forget that Grenfell had preceded Haussens (alone, in his own mission boat :
vide p. 107) on or about February 20th in that year. Grenfell thought he had dis-
covered a great branch of the main Congo, though by July 1884 he realized it was
an independent river. He was unquestionably the first to prove the independent
status of the Mubangi by his journey up it in October 1884.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE MUBANGI 117
originally thought the phrase " Mai ma Bobangi " was just
the name given to a separate branch of the main Congo.
"It was not until we had journeyed nearly 130 miles up the
Mubangi that we made sure of its independence." Before
they had gone very far on this remarkable journey of discovery
they found themselves amongst natives who were really startled
at the sight of a white man, and who greeted the expedition
with cries of " Bidimo ! bidimo ! " (" Spirits ").
On board the Peace was a Mubangi native from the banks
of the Congo, who attempted to appease the fears of his
countrymen. But the distrust of the natives was invincible,
and Grenfell's expedition was forced by failure of food supplies
to return, after having travelled up the river about 130 miles,
without, however, being able to do much surveying. The
warriors on the banks, he noticed, when preparing to fight
donned sleeveless jackets of elephant or buffalo hide. They
used long, narrow shields, and fought with bundles of spears.
While anchoring at night on the Mubangi, the Peace was
nearly swept off downstream by a huge floating island of
vegetation coming athwart her bows and causing her to drag
her anchors. Grenfell feared that his little steamer might in
this way be forced under overhanging trees, or across some
great snag : even with steam full up in the opposite direction
to the current he could not prevent her being carried along by
this floating mass of vegetation. At last the crew, standing on
the island with hatchets and hand-saws, detached the tough roots
of the floating vegetation from the bow of the Peace, and thus the
steamer after being dragged for two miles got free and steamed
back to the main Congo, her crew eager for supplies of food.
The next item of discovery on the eastward, outgoing
voyage of October-March 1884-5, was the Ruki or Black
River, which is nearly joined at its confluence with the Congo
by the Ikelemba. 1 This was Stanley's Buruki or Muhindu, the
stream which he thought was the ultimate outlet of the Kasai.
Grenfell discovered it to be formed by the juncture of two
important streams, the Juapa and Busira, but his explorations
in this direction were postponed to a more convenient oppor-
tunity, and he confined himself on this trip to the ascent of the
Ikelemba, a much smaller river, but one which taps — or tapped
— a district of metal-workers who sent down large supplies of
knives and spears for sale on the Congo.
Returning to the main Congo, they coasted along the
1 " Up the Ruki there are many palms. A conglomerate formation. The towns
are built on lofty points."
n8 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
" Ngombe district" (which would seem to be the country be-
tween the Ruki River on the south and the Lulanga River
on the north), and here entered a town called Dancla, not far
from the Ikelemba, which Grenfell describes as follows : —
" It was quite different from anything we had previously seen, being
entirely surrounded by a ditch, twelve feet wide and six deep, and on
the inner side of this ditch by a tall barricade of split logs twelve feet
high. There were three entrances into the town, each approached by a
single log bridge ; the narrow breaks in the barricade were provided
with slabs of wood in readiness to close them should the need arise.
Dr. Sims and Eyambi were the first to enter this town, and the people
were so much startled by the white man's advent that one of them
jumped up and let fly an arrow at the unannounced visitors, very
narrowly missing the doctor, and going through Eyambi's cloth. The
people scarcely appeared to understand why we did not declare war at
once, and regarded our attempts at friendly intercourse with such
evident suspicion that neither party were much at ease till each was
further apart.
" These people ornament themselves in a frightful way, by making
raised cicatrices on their faces, covering them entirely, in some cases
even the lips, with lumps as big as peas. Sometimes a man will have
a row all down his nose as close as they can stick, others will be con-
tent with three or four, while others again will have a big one just on
the lip, suggestive of a budding rhinoceros horn. Some have rows of
these ' blebs ' all round the eyes and along the cheeks, till they meet at
the chin, resulting in a horrid similarity to the outline of a 'death's
head.' One girl whom we saw had a lump as large as a pigeon's egg
on each side of her nose, and so close to her eyes that they must have
been a great trouble, for when she wished to look at anyone, she had
to bow her head and look over these ' beauty marks.'"
After this investigation of the Ikelemba (which he noted
was a hundred yards wide at its mouth) Grenfell ascended the
main Congo (along the western bank) to the Bosungu creek.
This stream, as well as one or two further south and north, he
takes to be only canals connecting the main Congo with the
lower Mubangi at flood time ; but subsequent explorations
have shown that if this water connection takes place it is with
the Ngiri affluents of the Mubangi.
Near the Bosungu creek Grenfell stopped at the large
native town of Lobengo on the west bank. He describes the
chief's " palace" or ngumba house (what elsewhere in Africa we
should style the guest house, the place of assemblage in the
middle of the village) as little else than a large roof, sixty or
seventy feet long by twenty to twenty-five feet wide, supported
on posts, and without any wall, the "king-posts" being finely
wrought by a species of carving which added greatly to their
THE DISCOVERY OF THE MUBANGI 121
appearance, and evidences both considerable skill and patience.
These ngumba houses of the Upper Congo are like the baraza
of East Africa, generally the place where the head-men of the
village meet to eat, or to discuss matters, or where a chief
entertains his guests. Palavers are talked here, and pipes are
smoked.
" From the roof," writes Grenfell, " hung a very miscellaneous
collection of African fishing-nets of all kinds, with meshes from the
size of a finger to a span long, for catching everything from little fish
in the water to large deer on land ; also rat traps built after the
manner of the toy known as the Siamese link, into which if a rat once
enters, the more he struggles, the tighter he is held ; there were also
pipes, both long and short, stuck into the thatch or the framework, the
shorter ones being smoked by the chief's wives, while that of the chief
himself might have a stem of from six to eight feet long. Amongst
the other furniture of this wonderful roof were spears and spear rests,
shields and knives, stores of medicines, and charms, stools, dishes, a
spare bed or two, fly whisks, a kind of backgammon board, 1 trophies of
the chase, and many other things might be seen stowed away in this
capacious roof."
_ ~" This town of Lobengo and many of the other prosperous
villages and settlements mentioned by Grenfell as existing in
the 'eighties south of Monsembe have now disappeared, owing
to unfriendly feeling between the natives and their white rulers.
At Monsembe, however, a Baptist mission station was
subsequently established. Here the Babangi people were in
terror of attacks from the neighbouring Bangala. These
descents of one tribe on another in this region were made
as much as anything for the purpose of obtaining victims
for cannibal feasts. At the Bangala towns which Grenfell
reached for the first time in November 1884 (though he had
been preceded by the African International Association) he
found himself in actual contact with cannibals. Slaves were
being killed and cut up when his steamer reached the principal
Bangala settlement. At the mouth of the Mongala River,
among the Babika, he met with a friendly reception, but the
floods were out, and there was scarcely a square yard of dry
ground in the whole town. Everything looked- wretchedly
swampy and unhealthy. The pathway to the town through
the swamp was marked by hideous rows of skulls on sticks,
and the chief and most of his people were decorated with
1 The " bao " of East-Central Africa, a thick piece of wood scooped out into a
number of shallow holes, on which a game is played by means of beans or pebbles.
This board is found nearly all over Negro Africa, being only wanting amongst the
Bushmen, Hottentots, Pygmies, Masai, and Nilotic Negroes.
122 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
necklaces of human teeth. There was plenty of wild rice
growing here, and the people possessed many guns.
On December ist 1884 he reached Mpesa, near Bomangi
on the north or right bank, the low situation of which appeared
to furnish a very uncomfortable sort of site for its three or
four thousand
■ i nhabi tants.
' y/:-S ','''"■'. -I nree miles
.'•'-;.'".;-:■ beyond Mpesa
, \ "\ he got a glimpse
of the south or
left bank, which
he had not been
able to see dur-
ing the previous
two hundred
miles. A few
miles further on
they came in
sight of a lone,
straggling reef
of rocks, which
stretched at
right angles for
a quarter of a
mile right out
into the Congo
stream. On
either side of
this reef was
Bopoto, a busy
place, at which
a great deal of
forging work
was going on.
Here axes and
hoes were made by the blacksmiths to supply the needs of
all the surrounding district. At this place Grenfell's party
changed their beads, wire, and cloth for soft- iron axes of
local manufacture, which further to the east would prove
the most suitable currency. One axe was valued at two
brass rods. To the eastward they found that a single axe
would in some cases buy a goat. Bopoto was afterwards to
become a flourishing Baptist mission station. Both here and
;*#V f {MV,~ "''•"'-■ - ■ •'• ■■■ x . *■-■■■-../,•' ,
48. NECKLACE OF HUMAN TEETH FROM THE
NORTHERN CONGO
THE DISCOVERY OF THE MUBANGI 123
at other places the Baptist missionaries have preserved the
natives from too ruthless treatment on the part of the whites.
The natives of Bopoto are an enterprising people, and in their
search for work or adventure have penetrated as far eastwards
as the Uganda Protectorate, where the present writer was able
to employ them as porters in his caravan a few years ago, and
to write down their dialect. Like most of the natives of the
Upper Congo, they scar their faces hideously.
In the Bumba district, at the confluence of the River Lubi
or Rubi (a river first explored by Grenfell, and called by him
alternatively the Loika or Itimbiri) the expedition found it had
reached a country of somewhat different ethnographical charac-
ter. The people no longer filed their teeth (a characteristic of
most of the cannibal Bangala tribes of the Upper Congo), their
hair was not fancifully dressed, but their bodies were painted in
elaborate patterns of red and black. The ears were pierced
and the lobe distended till it became rope-like. They called to
one another with a good imitation of a cock-crow. Their
houses instead of being built of grass were made of mud, with
rounded ends and bark roofs. Here the great Congo is
probably at its broadest — opposite Yambinga- — unless this
distinction should be awarded to the Sanga or the Mubangi
confluence. At any rate, at Yambinga, near the mouth of the
Rubi, the Congo is almost the average breadth of the Albert
Nyanza or of the north end of Lake Nyasa, though its surface is
so studded with islands that navigation is far safer, and the sheet
of water is not so imposing in appearance [vide map, opp. p. 290).
The Peace ascended the Itimbiri or Rubi River (which was
from 150 to 300 yards wide) for a distance of nearly 100 miles,
till further progress was stopped by falls. The Rubi a little dis-
tance above these falls comes from far away in the east, near
the Nepoko and the Aruwimi. Another branch, the Likati,
rises quite close to the upper waters of the Wele-Makua, and
joins the Rubi above the falls which mark its descent from the
plateau region to the lake-like basin of the Congo. On either
side of the lower Rubi lofty red cliffs rise perpendicularly from
the river, often with fertile plots on the top. The Rubi people
descend and ascend these steep approaches to the water by
means of rough ladders made of notched palm-trunks, which
can be hauled up and down. They are a good-looking race,
the boys especially. They do not file their teeth, and wear the
hair dressed in three tufts. The ornaments on neck and arms
are of copper.
The point at which Grenfell stopped was 2° 50' N. Lat.
i2 4 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Up and down the Rubi the people were fairly friendly, though
at first very timid ; but when Grenfell resumed his ascent of
the main Congo and reached the Basoko country at Monungiri,
and from thence onwards to the Aruwimi, 1 the people were not
only most unfriendly, but he discovered to his horror that they
had overwhelmed the small post of Hausa soldiers placed at
the Aruwimi mouth by Stanley's expedition, and had eaten two
of the Hausas, the remaining one of the three soldiers having
escaped, as he was too thin to tempt their palates.
The Aruwimi River being barred by the cataracts of
Yambuya at no great distance from its mouth, and the people
on its banks proving so unfriendly, Grenfell made no attempt
to explore it. Moreover, he was soon conscious that he was
approaching trouble. He had seen the Basoko still in their
primitive condition, much as they were when Stanley's expedi-
tion descended the river in 1877 and fought one of its most
desperate battles for existence with this fierce cannibal tribe of
the Aruwimi. In fact, Grenfell was able to appreciate the con-
dition of affairs on the Upper Congo as it was before the white
man had time to effect any change in the polity of these people.
Man figured in these regions as the fiercest of the carnivores.
Town warred against town for the procuring of human flesh.
Now Grenfell was to meet the advance of the Arab movement.
After Stanley's successful descent of the Congo in 1877,
Arab ivory hunters and slave raiders under such leaders as
Tipu-Tipu (Hammad bin Muhammad) had gradually advanced
northwards and westwards from Nyangwe, that Arab station in
the Manyema country on the Lualaba-Congo which had been
visited by Livingstone in 1871. About 1879 the Arabs had
established themselves pretty firmly at Stanley Falls. They
had also crossed westwards from the main Congo to the
Lomami, a river which flows almost parallel with the Lualaba-
Congo. The Manyema or Bakusu people after having been
decimated by the Arab attacks bad made common cause with
these coast people, 2 only the leaders of whom could be con-
1 Grenfell states that another name for this river is Mbinga. Both Stanley and
he also quote the alternative title Biyerre. " Aruwimi '' seems to be really a Stanleyan
mis-hearing of Luhimi or Ruimi. The same name for a river is frequently found
amongst the Bantu people of Equatorial Central Africa, and is variously spelt by
Europeans Wimi, Ruimi, Uruimi, according as it is given with the prefix or without.
2 Generally known by the Swahili name "Wafigwana" or its local rendering
Balungwana, meaning " civilized people." Another nickname amongst the Aruwimi-
Lomami people was Tamba-Tamba. The Arabs in their turn spoke of the indigenes
generically as Wa-shenzi (the conquered), and this term has confused many an un-
wary explorer, not even excepting Dr. L. Frobenius, who mistakenly records the
Bashenzi amongst the native tribes of the Congo.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE MUBANGI 125
sidered Arabs with moderately light skin, prominent noses, and
long beards. Most of the so-called Arabs were almost entirely
negro in physical appearance, though of course Muhammadan
in religion.
Having witnessed therefore the cannibalistic regime in full
swing on the northern bend of the Congo, Grenfell was now
about to come in contact with the results of Arab devastations.
After steaming away from the hostile Basoko towards the
mouth of the Lomami past a depopulated shore, he saw late
in the afternoon on the eastern horizon what he took to be the
smoke of salt-makers' fires — for the natives of this and other
parts of Africa burn the waterside vegetation in order to make
salt out of the potash.
" Shortly after midnight we learnt that what we had taken to
be the light of a salt-maker's fire had been the flames of a burning
town. A long line of canoes came dropping downstream close in-
shore, flying from a band of Arab raiders in pursuit of slaves and ivory.
While talking with these poor people, wreckage of all kinds commenced
floating by, and for nearly three hours an unceasing and continuous
stream of hut-roofs, beds, stools, calabashes, fishing-nets, ropes, and
all the gear that had been thrown into the river, partly from the towns
and partly from the canoes by those runaways who found themselves
hard-pressed, or from those captured by the Arabs, who would not be
bothered by such plunder."
The next morning they reached the smoking ruins of
Yambuli town, which had possessed about four thousand inhabi-
tants. Beyond that they came to another native settlement
which had been quite destroyed. Here there were men linger-
ing among the still smoking ruins, who called out to the crew
of the steamer, " We have nothing left, nothing ! Our houses
are burnt, our plantations are destroyed, and. our women and
children all gone." One of the men pointed to the islands
across the river in the direction of the Lomami mouth (here
called the Boloko River, and higher up the Loomi or Lolami)
and said, "The men who did it are over there." Grenfell
crossed the river in the Peace after passing more burning ruins,
and visited the Arab camp at the mouth of the Lomami. There
were here about seven hundred coast men and Manyema,
under the command of Mwinyi Omani, the head-man in the
service of Tipu-Tipu. From this point eastwards to the
Stanley Falls the riverain country was quite disorganized.
Thousands of fugitives were attempting flight in their canoes,
and nearly all the villages were abandoned or the inhabitants
were skulking in the plantations. The women and children
i26 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
were wailing and lamenting. Naturally, under these circum-
stances it was very difficult to buy food, though hitherto this
region had been noted for its plenty.
On Christmas Eve 1884 a visit was paid to Tipu-Tipu,
who was encamped at Stanley Falls.
After leaving with Tipu-Tipu a few letters for despatch to
Europe via Zanzibar, Grenfell decided to return, and steamed
back to the mouth of the Lomami or Boloko.
M#*~
49. A FLEET OF CANOE DWELLINGS AT ISANGI, MOUTH OF LOMAMI KIVER, 1 89 1
(In the days of the early Arab troubles many Lomami people took to living in their canoes,
a practice formerly adopted for trading purposes.)
This river rises as. far south as 8° 40' S. Lat. in the highlands
of Samba, not very far from the Lubudi affluent of the upper
Lualaba. 1 In the same region it was believed, even for a
considerable time after Grenfell's explorations, that the upper
Lomami really flowed into the Sankuru and Kasai. Grenfell
at the beginning of 1885 steamed up it from the Congo con-
fluence about 140 miles (not counting the many windings). 2
1 The Lualaba probably rises in about u c 50' S. Lat, on the northern flanks of
the Chafukuma range, which also gives rise to the Kafue, Luanga, and Kabompo
of the Zambezi basin.
2 Grenfell in his 1885 visit appends these notes as to the lower Lomami : —
" Uilanga a very populous district. Mpelele (or disc worn in the upper lip)
common, and usually made of buffalo's or wild pig's teeth. Very fine country ;
plenty of bananas and palms. No mosquitoes. Forest not so dense, very fine
Calamus palms, abundance of Crinum lilies. Some of the people have their teeth
THE DISCOVERY OF THE MUBANGI 127
The people on its banks were very hostile, partly from native
savagery, and partly owing to their exasperation at the Arab
raids. The sides of the Peace could be defended with special
blinds which acted as arrow-guards, and but for this protection
it would have been difficult to have ascended the Lomami on
this occasion without serious casualties, as the natives sent out
flights of poisoned arrows against her as she came within
reach. The river flowed for the most part through dense
forests. The people south of Dilanga belonged in the main to
the great Balolo race which occupies so much of the country
immediately to the south of the central Congo.
At a point in about i° 30' S. Lat. Grenfell's steamer had
to stop. The river had contracted to a width of only eighty
yards. It was thirty feet deep, and the current was flowing at
the rate of about four knots an hour. The altitude above sea-
level of the stream at this point was about 1,350 feet. A. Del-
commune subsequently traced the Lomami northwards till the
stream revealed by Cameron had become one river with the
" Boloko " explored by Grenfell at the beginning of 1885.
After returning from the Lomami Grenfell steamed down
the Congo westwards, and once more tackled the Mubangi in
February 1885. This he now followed up resolutely for two
hundred miles till he reached the Zongo (Grenfell) Rapids in
about 4 40' N. Lat., by far the most northerly point yet reached
in the exploration of the Congo basin. The river which up to
this point constantly bore the name of Liboko could only be
the Wele-Makua of Schweinfurth's discovery in 1870. 1 When
filed down to the gums. Knives and spears in great abundance. They call smelted
iron lubulu.
" Yaponga people use wide-bladed paddles, and sit down in their canoes. The
canoes have squared ends in the stern (like those of Fernando P6). Between Dilanga
and the Congo, the Lomami people do not employ canoes, but rafts or catamarans.
Many monkeys and monitor lizards in this Yaponga country."
1 When Schweinfurth, following up the hints given by the Venetian traveller
Miani, crossed the Nile water parting and reached the great Wele River flowing west-
wards, he thought he had lighted on the upper Shari, which flows into Lake Chad. It
was not considered possible then that the Congo basin could extend so far north.
But when Stanley proved that the main stream reached to more than two degrees
north of the Equator he felt that the Wele must belong to the Congo system, though
he made it join the Congo through the Aruwimi. It fell to Lieutenant Vangele of the
African International Association to complete the connection of the Wele-Makua
(under the name of Dua) with Grenfell's Liboko-Mubangi, but it was Grenfell's
journey as far north as Zongo or Grenfell Falls in 1885 that caused most geographers
to surmise that the Mubangi and the Wele were one. On his second ascent of the
Mubangi Grenfell was able to get in a boat past the Zongo cataract to the region
wherein the stream was flowing west from east. Some vague, vague hint of the
existence of the Mubangi seems to have reached Italian or Portuguese explorers in
the latter seventeenth century, and coupled with the stories of Hausa traders about
the Benue a hundred years later suggested to English geographers in the early
nineteenth century the Congo and the Niger being one river.
i28 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
his realization of the Mubangi as perhaps the most important
affluent of the Congo reached Europe in the summer of 1885
it found Stanley incredulous and a little petulant, for he had
just issued a book and maps dealing with the Congo basin in
which the existence of the Mubangi — independent of the
Sanga-Nana — was completely overlooked. But the Belgian
geographer A. J. Wauters at once identified the Mubangi as
the lower course of Schweinfurth's Wele, and Grenfell had
attained to the first rank in African exploration.
Stanley after his return to the Congo in 1879 had been too
much occupied constructing a road to Stanley Pool and convey-
ing steamers in sections to resume exploration pure and simple
until 1882. He then steamed up the Kwa and Mfini into Lake
Leopold II, which he named and mapped. In 1883 he discov-
ered Lake Mantumba or Ntomba, and by 1884 he had delineated
the characteristic features of the main Congo as far east as
Stanley Falls with some greater degree of accuracy than
characterized his maps of 1877. But he had added nothing to
our knowledge — not even intelligent guesses — as to the courses
and relative importance of the main affluents of the Congo. In
fact his surmises as to the subsidiary features of the Congo basin
proved to be quite inaccurate. He divided up the immense
Wele watershed between the Aruwimi (which really receives
the rainfall immediately west of the Semliki and Albert
Nyanza) and the Rubi, a relatively insignificant affluent of the
northern Congo, explored by Grenfell in 1885. The existence
of the premier affluent of the Congo, the Mubangi — Liboko —
or Dua, is confused with the Sanga (which Stanley styles the
Nana), and also with a hypothetical Lake Ngiri. It is true
that Stanley records the name Mbanghi, and places its outlet
more or less correctly in correspondence with the now well-
known Mubangi. This information was probably derived from
Grenfell, who discovered the outlet of this river about February
20th 1884, when on the boat journey afore-mentioned. 1
Grenfell's second (and longest) journey up the Mubangi was
accompanied by a careful survey and by the following notes : —
The volume of the Mubangi at its junction with the Congo
is about 200,000 cubic feet per second; its colour pale brick-red.
In the flat marshy country of the Baloi (about i° 50' N. Lat.)
the characteristic formation of the surface is a ferruginous con-
1 It should be remembered that in the map issued by Grenfell and Comber in
1884-5, though there is the mouth of a river faintly indicated where the Mubangi
joins the Congo, no name is applied to it on the map, though it is stated {Proceedings
of the Royal Geographical Society, June 1885, p. 362) to be the Mubangi River.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE MUBANGI 129
glomerate floor in horizontal beds, suggesting at no remote
geological date an immense lake bottom. The sacred ibis is
common about here. The Baloi people shave all the hair off
the front and top of the head, leaving a kind of crest at the
back. They wear for armour in warfare sleeveless waistcoats
of buffalo or elephant hide. These Baloi "waistcoats" we
found as far north as 4 8' N. Lat.
At about i° 30' N. Lat. Grenfell noticed houses with mud-
based walls, and bark-cloth in use among the natives. The
people were armed with sharpened sticks for spears and carried
oval shields.
On this second attempt (February-March 1885) to ascend
the Mubangi Grenfell was under the disadvantage of navigating
the river at the height of the dry season, and the river had fallen
quite four feet since his previous visit in October. Still, there
were navigable channels between the islands with which — like
the central Congo — the Mubangi is studded. Journeying up-
stream, the " lake bottom " formation continues as far north as
2 30' N. Lat. From this point southwards its course is nearly
parallel to the main Congo.
But above 2 30' N. Lat. the hilly country begins, and
the bottom of the river instead of being sand is rock. At
2° 35' the people wear necklaces of human teeth and bore large
holes in the lobes of the ears. At 2° 42' he notes, " Much
honey ; elephants ; ducks ; oil palms."
About Bunyembe (3 ic/) the people are of large stature,
of a mixed type and speaking an "unknown language." Their
houses are like those of the Upper Congo at Bopoto.
At Busembe (Lat. 3 10' N.) the men were quite naked.
The fine-looking population possessed plenty of goats. They
were iron-workers and there seemed to be abundance of copper
in the country. At 3 3c/ N. Lat. the women were seen wear-
ing grass skirts and large, heavy copper collars. Their cheeks
were cicatrized in patterns.
The current at 3 30' N. Lat. was 500 feet per minute.
The cliffs or banks were often fifty feet above the river. Oil
palms were scarce. The Usnea lichen was found hanging from
the trees in great profusion. Cotton was grown and was in
blossom in February. At Lat. 3 50' N. the rocks at dead
low water (February) almost threatened an obstacle to naviga-
tion, but subsequent experience has shown that the Mubangi
during exceptional rainy seasons is navigable for small steamers
as far as Banzyville, or almost half-way to the sources of
the Wele-Makua. Even the rapids at Banzyville are pass-
Stanley's general idea of the
geography of the Congo basin
in IS85 before the results of
Grenfeli's& Wrssmann's journeys „ ..
i t J s Xiobito B.
were made known. ,-...■».-,-,
Statute Miles •
NOTE. — The dotted line along the upper course of the Mubangi indicates that Gren/ell, in his preliminary explorations of that river, obtained the necessary information for the Belgian
geographer Wauters to connect the Mubangi with Junker's Wele ; but Grenfelt himself did not proceed further than tlie Grenfell Falls.
132 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
able in the height of the flood season. Boats and canoes,
if not steam launches, can at any rate penetrate as far along the
course of the Mubangi-Wele to the east as Yakoma, at the
junction of the Mbomu 1 and the Wele. It was noticeable that
above 3 30' N. Lat. the plaintain or banana became scarce,
but manioc was abundantly cultivated. The houses began to
have tall conical roofs. There were fresh-water oysters (s£tke-
rid) on the beaches. At about 4 4' Grenfell was attacked by
about fifty canoes, many of them large ones. Spears, arrows,
sticks, and stones were thrown at the steamer. He afterwards
landed, however, made friends, and bought a lot of spears,
knives, etc., from the attacking force. At 4° 8' he "sighted
very light-coloured bush people . . . Barumbe or Bambenga."
At about 4 22' he notes that large kauri shells were useful for
trade and that ground-nuts were cultivated.
At 4 27' N. they found the river breaking through a range
of quartz and red clay hills a thousand feet high, and it was
now seen to be coming from a much more easterly direction.
Before attempting to pass through this gap in the, high hills,
where immense masses of quartz break the river up into a series t
of rapids (the Zongo or Grenfell Falls), 2 Grenfell considered it
wise to anchor the Peace and do some prospecting in the rowing-
boat which was towed alongside. On the other side of this
difficult passage (through which the Peace passed in safety) the
natives were no longer friendly. Men, women, and children took
refuge in "crows' nests," little forts which they had built at the
bifurcation of the branches of tall, straight-stemmed trees. They
reached these eyries by means of rope ladders which they
hauled up after them, and from these refuges they shot poisoned
arrows at the steamer. As the travellers on the boat were pro-
tected by the arrow-proof wire netting already alluded to, the
vessel continued on her way without taking notice of this hostile
reception. The natives regarded this as cowardice on the part
1 Subsequent to Grenfell's journeys, the Mbomu, an important northern affluent
of the Wele, was chosen together with the Mubangi as the boundary between French
Congo and the Congo Independent State, and this boundary was subsequently recog-
nized in its relations with the Egyptian Sudan by the British Government. It was
along the Mubangi and the Mbomu that Marchand made his truly remarkable journey
in 1895-7. From the upper waters of the Mbomu he crossed the watershed to the
Sue affluent of the Bahr-al-Ghazal, and so descended to the Nile at Fashoda.
2 The altitude of the Mubangi above sea-level below the Zongo Rapids Grenfell
computed at 1,296 feet. The volume of water in the Mubangi at Zongo was only
70,000 cubic feet per second in the dry season. The falls begin on the north-east
at Mokwangai, and continue southwards till the Zongo barrier is passed. They
have no general name, and might well be christened forthwith the " Grenfell Falls."
Grenfell, who has done so much for Congo geography, has no local memorial on the
map like so many other explorers, great and small.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE MUBANGI 133
of the mysterious invaders, and the villages in front as well as
those behind sent out fleets of canoes against the Peace till she
was surrounded by these wasps. As evening was approaching,
Grenfell considered discretion to be the better part of valour, and
turned the steamer round downstream. He soon left the canoes
behind, but just as night fell, and they were not yet past the
last of the hostile villages, the steamer struck against the rocky
bottom in a shallow channel, and three minutes afterwards two
of her watertight compartments were flooded and her freeboard
was on a level with the stream. There was nothing to be done
but to run the vessel on shore, whether the natives were friends
or foes ; and the whole of the night was spent in closing the
three principal holes in the sides with boards, clay, and cotton
50. A POX FROM THE UPPER MUBANGI — RED AND BLUE-GREY
waste: in such a way that when the vessel again proceeded on
her course the water could be baled out more rapidly than it
came in. Thus they managed to get through the gap in the
hills and back into the friendly country, where the steamer was
thoroughly overhauled on a sandbank and the necessary repairs
completed. After that, the rest of the journey down the
Mubangi was most agreeable, as the reception was invariably
friendly. Even where the people had been suspicious or war-
like on the first two ascents of the river they were now clamorous
that the white man should stop and build.
The local names of the Mubangi (besides that word, which is
derived from the trade language of the Babangi or Bayanzi) are
Mai ma Bobangi and Liboko, in its lower course ; Jila above
3° 30' N. Lat. ; and beyond that eastwards, Kwango, Dua, Makua,
Linga, Ngungu, Nimba, Bonso, WereorWele, Kibali, and Kibbi.
i v 34 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Even before Grenfell had discovered the Mubangi, and
after Stanley had revealed the northern bend of the Congo,
philologists had been wondering where the Bantu borderland
lay in this direction. The researches of Schweinfurth, Nach-
tigal, Barth, and Baikie had shown that at any rate the Bantu
languages did not occupy the region of the upper Wele, the
Shari, or the Benue. How far south did the non- Bantu
tongues extend, how far north of the main Congo did the
Bantu languages hold the field? It has been the peculiar
honour of the missionaries Grenfell and Stapleton 1 to have
revealed to us the main facts on this question. Stapleton, as I
shall show later, was the first to discover that the main Congo
did not lie wholly within the Bantu domain on the north-east
(Bamanga enclave); Grenfell in this journey of 1885 to the
Zongo Falls noted that when he passed north of Lat. 3 2' — ■
most of all, north of Lat. 3 30' on the Mubangi — he had left
the Bantu-speaking peoples for a race (probably the Banza)
whose language seemed to be of quite a different order. The
small vocabulary which he recorded then and there, scattered
in and out of his pencilled survey, is of a most interesting
character. By some accident it has never seen the light till it
is now published (pp. 838-40), as the pages on which the vocab-
bulary was inscribed were forgotten at the bottom of an old
travelling desk, and were only found after Grenfell's death.
W. H. Stapleton in January 1897 journeyed up the Mubangi,
and also observed that when he had passed 3 30' N. Lat. the
speech was non-Bantu. He recorded a few words of this
language, which he called Mpombo, and of which he could not
trace the affinities : it is probably the speech of the Banza
people.
Grenfell's vocabulary written down in February 1885 is
fuller than Stapleton's, and is the one dealt with in chapter xxxi.
Lieutenant Vangele in 1887, and subsequently, continued
Grenfell's explorations, and followed the whole course of the
Mubangi to its junction with Junker's Makua, Schweinfurth's
Wele, and Vankerckhoven's Kibali. Eastward of the Zongo
Falls the great river was surveyed by Georges Le Marinel, a
celebrated Belgian explorer.
1 The Rev. W. II. Stapleton went to the Baptist Mission on the Congo in 1889
and worked on the upper river till 1906. The Rev. Wm. Forfeit's discovery of the
non-Bantu Ndonga speech near the northern bend of the Congo is also noteworthy.
CHAPTER IX
THE RIVERS OF CENTRAL CONGOLAND
FROM the middle of March to the beginning of August
1885 Grenfell remained at Stanley Pool, occupying
himself with the work of the Mission at Arthington,
and with the planning of transport between Stanley Pool and
the Lower Congo. He also inspected other places on the
shore of Stanley Pool in the vicinity of Nshasa with a view to
more suitable sites for the Mission transport work in connection
with the upper river, such as, for example, a "slip" for repair-
ing the Peace.
On August 2nd 1885 he started on the third voyage of the
Peace, accompanied by Von Francois (a German explorer), by
Mrs. Grenfell, and his little daughter, and by eight of the school-
children of the Mission. On this and other occasions it was the
practice of the agents of the Baptist Missionary Society to take
the more promising scholars of their mission school on journeys
about the Congo and its affluents. This opened their eyes to
the world outside their own village, and enabled them to ex-
change ideas with the savages. They also acted from time to
time as interpreters ; because not infrequently these school-
children were slaves or the sons or daughters of slaves that had
been stranded at Stanley Pool and still retained some knowledge
of the language spoken in their original homes. Thus on an
earlier occasion Grenfell had managed to get into communica-
tion with the natives high up the Mubangi River through one
of the school-children of his Mission.
It was decided on this third voyage of the Peace to explore
some of the mighty affluents entering the Congo in the
equatorial region from the east or south. On their way up-
stream past the Ngombe town of Ilebo they noticed the corpse
of a woman hanging over the water from one of the branches
of a great tree. At first it was thought that she had been
executed in punishment for adultery, but on being questioned
the natives said she had been guilty of a much more serious
J 3S
136 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
crime. They had passed a law that all goods, especially food,
must be sold to the white man at a price far greater than the
local market value. What the minimum sale price was to be,
Grenfell does not mention, but states that the woman having
charged the white men of Lukolela "only double" the local
market price for
eggs, had been con-
victed of breaking
the fiscal law, and
had suffered death
in consequence.
On August 24th
the Peace entered
the great River Lu-
longo (called by
Grenfell at the time
Lulanga). At its
confluence with the
Congo this river is
only six hundred
yards wide, though
its depth and cur-
rent evidence its
importance. It
rises to high flood
in September,
several weeks be-
fore the Ruki, far-
ther south, reaches
its greatest volume.
A few miles above
its confluence with
the Congo it
spreads out to
three-quarters of a
mile in width. A
from the Congo confluence
which above this con-
as the Marinsra. 1 Grenfell steamed for
51. grenfell's "calamus" palm, in two stages
of growth
(This climbing palm is really Ancistrophylluni secundiJIo)-um. It is
found all over the equatorial Congo basin, growing to heights of
two and three hundred feet )
little more than a
the Lopori River
fluence is known
hundred miles
joins the
Lulongo.
Maringa. 1
1 At this point in his journal Grenfell makes this natural history note on
Lulongo scenery : " There were many parrots, and great numbers of butterflies,
which last pounce on things in the water like a bird. Very tall calamus palms,
pandanus, African teak, gum copal, many orchids." "At the junction of the Lopori
with the Lulongo there is high ground — red clay cliffs rising from fifty to one hundred
THE RIVERS OF CENTRAL CONGOLAND 137
about four hundred miles up the Lulongo-Maringa, making
the return journey to the main Congo in less than a week
owing to the help of the current. [In December 1902
he notes that the average speed of the Lulongo current was
128 feet per minute.] This journey had brought him — whether
he knew it or not at the time — to within a hundred miles of the
Lomami. In fact, the Congo basin differs from any other part
of tropical Africa by the possession of navigable waterways
arranged by Nature in such a fashion as to permeate the terri-
tory in all directions (see map on page 495).
52. SCENE TYPICAL OF FLOOD-TIME ON THE RIVER, WATER UP TO THE HOUSES
The land on either side of the lower Lulongo is flat and
much under water in the rainy season. As a rule the villages
are built on raised mounds— ngunda — which are immense ant-
hills of the termites flattened and levelled. When there are no
anthills or they are not big enough, the riverain people build on
the wooded islands ; but these villages are abandoned in flood
time and the population retreats to the mainland at some
distance from the river. Here they embank their villages with
a wattle fence and heap up earth against it.
feet above the river." " Many of the islands in the Lulongo are covered with houses.
The principal trees seen by this river are bombax, oil palm (scarce), calamus, climb-
ing palm, pandanus, and borassus. Many borassus, extraordinary abundance of
bananas. . . . Abundance of fowls, goats, and sheep ; but no tobacco plant."
138 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Higher up the river the houses continue to he on posts, but
apparently for other reasons than that of floods, as they are
raised on stilts even when the land is above flood-level, "very
suggestive of prehistoric lake dwelling-houses." In some
places the posts that support the houses are five feet above the
"round-level. All the cooking in the houses is done upstairs.
Canoes are sharp-pointed at both ends (not square at the stern,
like those of the Lomami) and sometimes have a small hook in
the bow. The paddles, like those of the Babuma, have
holes in them, lined with brass. Traps are laid for crocodiles
on fallen logs. Cloth was (in 1885) of no value. Kauris were
used as ornaments ; the best currency was beads and brass
rods. Grenfell states that the men of the lower Lulongo
(? Ngombe people) are frequently seen with beards, and that he
saw one woman with quite long hair. The people on this river
when they wish to call attention to anything hiss loudly. Their
faces (on the lower Lulongo) are often marked with semicircular
cicatrices between ear and eye in three concentric rings ; or
there is one big row down the middle of the forehead and three
side rows from eye to ear. The women have bean-sized lumps
regularly spaced over the hips, abdomen, and back.
Knives are worn without sheaths on the thigh, handles
tucked under waist-string. The men have a kind of suspen-
sory bandage to carry the scrotum, "and a flap of skin hangs
down over this part in front." 1 The women wear a small bit of
plantain leaf. Their necks, arms, and legs are without brass
rings or ornaments. On the Lulongo brass bracelets and
anklets seem to be specially reserved for the chiefs and im-
portant men. These also wear monkey-skin helmets 2 orna-
mented with brass plates four inches broad. Though here and
there suspicious, the natives along this river were on the whole
friendly, at that period, to the white man. When the small
boat of the Peace was sunk through an accident and an over-
load of firewood, the natives came out in their canoes, assisted
to salvage the fuel, and later on raised the boat. The Lulongo-
Maringa was found to flow through a (then) populous and
wealthy district, " with a magnificently rich soil." Slaves, it is
true, were being brought down in numbers in the canoes, 8 but
1 This rather obscure reference in Grenfell's notes suggests that these people
may be like the extraordinary "Wanda" people of the Lulua Valley. These are
stated by Henrique de Carvalho to strain and pull down the skin of the abdomen
till it in some way serves as a " tegipudenda."
2 Grenfell notes that a Colobus monkey (called by the natives Dibuko or
Mabuko), black with a white throat, was found on the upper Lulongo.
3 It is noteworthy from the observations of Stanley, Grenfell, the present writer,
and others who visited and described the Upper Congo between 1877 and 1886, that
THE RIVERS OF CENTRAL CONGOLAND 139
enormous quantities of ivory were also being conveyed to the
main river. Supplies of food were extremely plentiful. Though
friendly enough to the white man, one village was making war
on another, the war being carried on under the observation of
the white man. There was not much loss of life, but prisoners
were grabbed as slaves: and (in 1885) the deaths of all
prominent persons of either sex were celebrated by the killing
of slaves.
In discussing the population of the lower Lulongo in his
notebooks Grenfell propounds a theory that the Bayanzi or
Babangi people originally came from this region ; but he
adduces no facts in support of this theory.
High up the Maringa or upper Lulongo River, at the town
of Gitabi, he noticed a difference in the population. It was
here that the houses were for the most part raised on posts
some four or five feet above the ground. The tribal marks or
facial adornments, instead of being a multitude of great blebs
starring the whole face, were limited to a parallel row of lumps
as big as peas down the centre of the nose. The bodies were
covered with raised scars the shape and size of large beans,
about an inch apart. Instead of using spears and sheathed
knives, they carried bows and arrows, and wore unsheathed
knives upon their thighs. They were clever and industrious at
forging iron [" there are many blacksmiths here "], and evidently
made an abundance of weapons and implements which were
sold lower down in the Congo basin. Cloth was here at a
discount. An empty biscuit tin or a thimbleful of beads were
much more prized than yards of Manchester cotton. These
people were probably members of the widespread Balolo race,
locally called Bamongo.
After returning to the main Congo from the Lulongo,
Grenfell started to explore the Buruki, Ruki, Mai Mohindu, or
" Black " River of Stanley. About sixty miles up the Buruki
before the Congo Free State got any serious hold over the country or the Arabs had
penetrated beyond the Lualaba and the Lomami, a westward-directed slave trade
was in full force in the Congo basin. These slaves, like the ivory, were brought
down the tributaries to the main Congo, and for the most part handed over to the
trading tribes of the Bangala and the Babangi (Bayanzi). By these latter they were
either conveyed to the Bangala towns on the Upper Congo (where they were eaten),
or they were transported by the same traders to Stanley Pool. Here, down to the
very commencement of Stanley's operations in 1879 they were still resold as slaves
for the white man, more or less. Prior to the activity of the British gunboats in the
'sixties and 'seventies of the last century these Congo slaves were still shipped across
to Brazil, Cuba, and Porto Rico. During the 'seventies, when it was less and less
easy to evade the vigilance of the British cruisers, these Congo slaves were styled
Krumanos, and were employed by most of the European trading houses on the
Lower Congo. Many also followed the overland route to San Salvador and thence
found their way into Angola.
i 4 o GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
he arrived at the confluence of the Moboyo (which he called the
Busira) with the main stream, now known as the Juapa. 1 From
its direction he took the Busira or Moboyo at first to be the
principal course of the river. This he ascended for about two
hundred miles (in a direct line) as far as the village of Mburi or
Bori. A little beyond this village the Busira became unnavig-
able, and the people of this upper portion of the river were of
very doubtful friendship, often saluting the expedition with
flights of arrows ["the bows are taller than the men that use
them "], and then offering to trade, once again resuming their
hostility if the expedition approached within range. " When
being asked why they are following the steamer along the river
with bows and arrows they say they understand a big canoe,
but a big thing that goes without paddles on the water they are
afraid of. If we stop to go in towards the bank they will run
away."
Descending the Busira, the explorers noticed that below
Tako there was a stretch of about eighty miles of more or less
uninhabited country, which as far as the eye could reach
seemed at one monotonous level. This country along the
Busira was devoid of oil palms and the Borassus fan palm was
seldom met with. The pandanus and the climbing calamus
were abundant in the swampy reaches. At Mumbembe the
rocky reaches characteristic of so much of the Congo basin
reappeared with towns built on them.
On the ascent of the Busira a few days before, the reception
at the villages had been alternately friendly and suspicious, but
on the return journey they were wholly friendly. This friendli-
ness, as the result of the considerate behaviour of the Peaces
crew, had extended by rumour across to the Juapa River on
the north, and when the Peace turned up the Juapa, which is
the best name for the main stream of the Buruki, the party
travelled for at least one hundred and fifty miles through "one
of the prettiest stretches of country we had seen during the
whole journey," and past villages which though here and there
showing suspicion were for the most part friendly.
The people on both banks of the Juapa were cannibals.
On the 15th of September Grenfell came upon a group who
were just about to kill a man and eat him. He tried without
success to redeem him for a cash payment. In another place
1 "In its upper waters the natives call it Luafia" (Grenfell). The Belgians
misspell the name as " Chuapa." As to the lower portion of the river, he writes :
"Up the Ruki there are many palms. A conglomerate formation. The towns are
built on lofty points."
THE RIVERS OF CENTRAL CONGOLAND 141
they offered him a fine-looking woman as a wife in exchange
for a plump boatman whom they wanted to eat! "Yet there
are plenty of oil palms up the Juapa, also sugar-cane and
cassava. "
After passing a short stretch of uninhabited forest ["there
is a sandstone formation where rocks are visible "] more villages
with possible supplies of provisions were reached, and on
28th September (1885) the expedition stopped, and attempted
to enter into rela-
tions with the -,.—
people. They had , '.'.'.. - y- -.'■■ 'V.,.'.
passed several small
fishing villages, 1
studiously keeping
at a distance so that
the people might
begin to understand
that the monster
was not animated
by hostile inten-
tions.
" Notwithstand-
ing our most friend-
ly attitude, they hur-
ried off their women
and children and
household goods in
canoes up the little
creeks which are so
numerous along the
river banks, leaving
the villages empty." However, just before sundown Grenfell
prevailed upon one old man to reply to his questions, and
before steaming away he put a few beads into a soup-
plate and set it floating on the stream, telling the old man
that when he thought the steamer was at a safe distance he
could come off in his canoe and pick it up. This he did
subsequently to his satisfaction. Finding a good anchorage a
short distance beyond, the steamer stopped for the night in
spite of the hostile attitude of the people. After some parley-
ing, the people said, " Well, we will look at one another in the
morning. If we have anything to sell we will trade." Later
1 Grenfell notes here that the natives were actually " overfishing " the Juapa,
and that they complained of the growingjdearth of fish .
53. YOUNG FORM OF ANCISTROPHYLLUM SECUNDI-
FLORUM CLIMBING PALM
(Beginning like this, the Ancistrophyllum gradually develops barbed
hooks and segmented fronds, and scrambles to the tops of the highest
trees.)
142 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
on a chief or medicine man came down from the inland town of
Bwanga and told the steamer party that he had arrived to talk,
as the people had run away and told him that " something-
terrible " had come. " It was dark now, and the medicine man
could not see anything. We were to be sure to stay where we
were and they would remain in the village, and in the morning
we should see each other. After some confabulation it was
decided that the natives should anchor a canoe-load of firewood
half-way from the shore to the steamer. We should send our
54. THE RED FRUITS AND SEED OF THE CLIMBING ANCISTROPHYLLUM PALM
(The seeds are sometimes strung together as necklaces. The fruit is slightly sweet and edible.)
boats for the firewood, pay for it, and retire. This was satis-
factorily arranged, and then they ventured alongside of the
boat, but were much too afraid of the steamer to come near it."
At this point on the Juapa or Luapa (as it began to be
called) he noted that the river still might rise another five feet
above its level at the end of September.
At Eyombe and the towns immediately to the east a very
hostile demonstration was made. The din of the big war
drums was terrible. On the beaches in front of the big towns
hundreds of armed men, painted red and black and white, were
dancing frantically or derisively "turning their sterns towards
the white man in derision." The air was thick with arrows,
THE RIVERS OF CENTRAL CONGOLAND 143
probably all poisoned. The Peace, protected by the wire arrow-
guards, was able to steam quite close inshore. Gracious over-
tures, however, had no effect, and the villages were hostile
even when the steamer passed them on her subsequent descent
of the river. Fortunately, further on the people of Lokuku,
Baromo, and Losaka were friendly, or at worst timid, so that
the expedition was able to renew its supplies of provisions. 1
Beyond Losaka, 2 however, in the Buputu country (which was
not far away from the Lomami and therefore had heard of
Arab raids and disliked strangers, in consequence) the natives
offered determined resistance to the further progress of the
steamer. The enemy lay concealed in ambush at a narrow part
of the river, and directed a flight of poisoned arrows on the
Peace, fired at short range and with remarkable effect. Some
of these penetrated the awning of boards, one of them nearly
transfixed Grenfell, while the rest of the crew had narrow
escapes at being wounded. The hostility still continuing, the
expedition stopped at Bokuku and turned back. The return
journey to the Congo and down to Stanley Pool — a thousand
miles or so — was made without check or disagreeable incident,
and Grenfell was once more back at his head station (Arthing-
ton) in October 1885.
In his notebooks or on the margins of his maps Grenfell
adds the following particulars about the Juapa region, as it
appeared to him in 1885 : —
On the Busira the people are marked with cicatrices from
cheekbone to cheekbone across the tip of the nose. The
women have straight cicatrices round the abdomen and thighs.
Sometimes the facial pattern in blebs radiates like a fan from
the base of the nose over the middle of the forehead. Some
of the Busira people slit their noses.
The houses in this district are long and rectangular. Bows and
arrows are the weapons, and the bows are six feet in length.
Kauris are in use and are obtained from the people in the south.
At Nkole on the Juapa the people speak Bayanzi. 3
1 On the Busira journey Grenfell notes the curious food supplies brought to him
by the natives, some of which he had to reject, as they consisted of " smoked snakes
and caterpillars." Caterpillars are much valued for food in this Juapa country, many
kinds being eaten of different flavours. Each kind is known by the name of the tree
on which it feeds.
2 At Losaka Grenfell was asked, "Is the steamer your home? Have you any
country?" At one place he inquired the name of the river. The reply was,
" Don't you know ? You are the people of the river, and therefore must know the
name." In this region they applied the word Ngali to " river," a term allied to the
Nzadi, Njali of Western Congoland.
3 i.e. the Congo trade language.
144 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
The banks on either side the Juapa are flooded in the rainy
season. The houses are, on the lower part of the river, long
and rectangular ; higher up they are square and made of mats.
The people, though cannibals, had abundance of food — fowls,
goats (which they call
"Nta"), plantains,
manioc, sugar - cane,
and oil palm. They
do not use kauris as a
currency, but brass
rods which they call
"lunkundu." Bows
and arrows were not
in common use on the
Juapa ; the men pre-
ferred spears as wea-
pons and consequently
carried shields. Their
spears were shaped
like exaggerated arum
leaves. The Bakutu
tribe (? Pygmies), how-
ever, on the south bank
of the upper Juapa
used bows and shot
their arrows with great
accuracy. In the Lo-
saka district far up the
Juapa (where the river
is called Luapa) the
people use wooden
clubs or "cleavers."
?S5- (OlBATWA BOW, ARROWS, AND QUIVER FROM TT„ r „ J 1 nwpr J nwn
THE JUAPA REGION. (2) A "WOODEN CLUB" y ere >. ana lOWer dOWn
or cleaver from the upper juapa the river, the shields
are not made of
wicker-work or of hide, but of slabs of wood.
The women on the upper "Luapa" are nude. The Balolo
people here (not far from the Lomami) knock out the incisor
teeth of the upper jaw or file them down level with the gum.
They decorate their faces with big weals on the sides of the
cheeks near the ears, and place four knobs over the nose.
At Diloku or Iloko on the middle Juapa Grenfell landed to
visit a chief who was by repute an elderly dandy. He jots
down this note in his survey-book (see illustration, p. 7) : —
THE RIVERS OF CENTRAL CONGOLAND 145
" The chief, a man about sixty to seventy years old, was
reddened to a nicety, 1 and wore a white, knitted cap decked with
parrots' red tail-feathers : also an otter-skin loin-cloth and belt.
This last held his highly polished copper-handled knife. In his
right hand was a spear, and a shield was slung over the left
shoulder : in the left hand was his pronged chair. A large ivory
trumpet hung over the right shoulder and completed his equip-
ment."
An interesting feature in these journeys up the Juapa and
Busira was the discovery of dwarf tribes, known generically as
Batwa and evidently belonging to the " Congo pygmy " stock.
Most of these Batwa are a light reddish colour in their skins,
and even their head hair has a reddish tinge occasionally.
Grenfell had met with them in 1 884 on the Ikelemba River. " In
the Juapa country" (he writes) "they are great hunters and
come to the villages of the larger people to sell the meat. They
are known by the tribal names of Barumbi or Barumbo,
Bapoto or Putu, Batwa or Joapi." He also calls them else-
where " Bakutu " of the Batamba country, south of the upper
Juapa. These red-skinned pygmies (according to Grenfell)
wander westwards as far as the main Congo. [Lord Mount-
morres has traced them as far west as the eastern shores of
Lake Ntomba, and the present writer saw one in 1883 at
Bolobo.] He adds in another part of his notes further particulars
as to the red dwarfs met with between the main Congo and the
Juapa : — ■
" The Batwa in this neighbourhood have little or no neck, but big
heads, and beards. Their height is three feet six inches to four feet
six inches. They build houses and live in them for a month or so, and
then move on, lodging in the trees whilst en voyage. They never farm.
They marry within the family circle and have many children. The
bigger tribes are jealous of them on this account. The dwarfs have
numerous chiefs amongst them. They sometimes daze and dazzle their
enemies by setting fire to the bush, and in their wars kill women as well
as men, often making war at night. They are said to be cannibals.
They have three parallel lines of cicatrices down the forehead. Twenty
to thirty families move together. They trap game in pitfalls."
Between October 1885 and February 1886 Grenfell remained
at Stanley Pool. This time was spent on mission work, on
arrears of accounts connected with the Peace, and in making
copious notes on natural history, native stories, sayings, ideas,
and languages. He also interviewed at Arthington Station the
many explorers now entering or returning from the Congo basin,
1 With powdered camwood bark and oil.
146 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
and compiled from their information — from 1886 onwards — a
commencement of the store of notes and extracts which to-
gether with his own original researches are utilized throughout
this book.
On the 24th of February 1886 Grenfell started again in
the Peace (the fourth journey) to explore the Kasai and Lulua
rivers. This journey was not only undertaken in order to
prospect for openings for mission work, but to assist the explorer
Wissmann, 1 who had come out for the King of the Belgians to
explore the southern basin of the Congo. A passage also was
given for the journey up the Kasai to Baron von Nimptsch, the
Administrator of the Congo State before the arrival of Sir
Francis de Winton.
Apparently Wissmann had preceded Grenfell, either in one
of the small steamers of the Congo State or in a rowing-boat,
and had gone on to the mouth of the Kwa to await Grenfell.
This, from his own point of view, was fortunate, as the Peace
met with a serious disaster near the northern exit from Stanley
Pool.
At half-past one, in the middle of the day, she struck sud-
denly on an unsuspected reef, and the whole fore part of the
steamer, as far as the engine-room, in three minutes was full of
water, while the vessel sank to the level of the river. The
boat took off Mrs. Grenfell, her little daughter, and most of the
1 Hermann Wissmann (afterwards von Wissmann), a young lieutenant in the
Prussian army, was born at Frankfurt on the Oder in Germany in 1853. He came
out to Angola with Dr. Pogge in 1 880, and crossing all the great rivers of south-central
Congoland reached Nyangwe in 1882 and Zanzibar in 1883, thus traversing Africa from
west to east. Having — with Dr. Pogge — reached the middle Kasai (1881) where it
was flowing nearly due north, and aware that Stanley considered the Kasai to join the
Congo through the Ruki, he returned to Congoland in 1884 (via Angola), and
between June 1884 and July 1885, with his companions the Muellers, Von Francois,
and Dr. L. Wolf, he revealed the main features of the Kasai system — the lengthy Lulua
River, the still more important Sankuru, their junction with the Kasai, and the Kasai
uniting with the Kwilu-Kwango and the Mfini-Lukenye to form the great Kwa
tributary of the Congo — in volume the greatest of the "princes" in the mighty Congo
kingdom. Wissmann ranks third in the hierarchy of early Congo explorers, Stanley
first, Grenfell second.
After the Kasai achievement of 1885 Wissmann returned again early in 1886 and
ascended the Kasai and the Lulua (mainly in the Peace), and once more crossed over
to the Lomami and Tanganyika. Instead of carrying out his original plan of explor-
ing Lake Albert Edward and returning to Zanzibar via the Victoria Nyanza, he
marched instead from Tanganyika to Nyasa and emerged at Quelimane on the east
coast (1887). From 1888 to 1890 he was engaged in subduing the Arab revolt in
German East Africa, of which dominion he was the practical founder. In 1891-3 he
conveyed a large steamer in sections to Lake Nyasa, and further strengthened the
German hold over Tanganyika by defeating and making peace with the slave-raiding
Awemba. He was a man of exceptional merit, with a high reputation among the
natives, never sufficiently appreciated in Germany, though one of the few great
Colonial administrators Germany has produced. He died in 1905.
THE RIVERS OF CENTRAL CONGOLAND 147
school-children, and returned to fetch away the instruments,
bedding, clothing, and food stores. By means of ropes and
the use of the boats, they hauled the bows of the Peace over
the rocks, working in almost mad haste before a coming tornado
broke. [This tornado would raise huge waves that might
bump the Peace to wreckage.] By the time the storm and the
deluge burst over them they had managed to float the steamer
on a sandbank.
In three days the
new plates had
been riveted on
and the steamer
was watertight,
but, alas! she
had been silted
up. It was neces-
sary to send all
the way to the
other end of
Stanley Pool to
invoke the as-
sistance of the
American Bap-
tist Mission,
which had a
steamer of its
own, the Henry
Reed}
With the as-
sistance of the
Henry Reed and
her men, the
steamer was ac-
tually dug out of
the bank, and after a week's delay from the time of her first
striking on the reef was again on her way northwards.
After visiting the Equator stations Grenfell returned to the
mouth of the Kwa, and there according to promise picked up
Wissmann.
56. GERMAN PIONEERS OF CONGO EXPLORATION
PHOTOGRAPHED AT STANLEY POOL
(Beginning on left — Von Francois, Wissmann, Wolf, and Hans Miiller.)
1 This little steamer figures almost as much in the early history of Congo ex-
ploration as does the Peace. She was presented to the Livingstone Inland Mission
of Bow London, in 1883, by an Australian sympathiser — Mr. Henry Reed. The
Henry Reed was placed on the Upper Congo in 1884, and figures much in Congo
history. The missionary captains of the Peace and the Henry Reed were most generous
in their assistance to explorers and administrators.
i 4 8 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
During a previous journey in 1884, Grenfell and Comber
had found their way up the Mfini to Lake Leopold, and also,
later, to the River Kwango, but had overlooked the main
course of the Kasai. 1 On this (the fourth exploring tour of the
Peace) Grenfell and Wissmann left Kwamouth on the 22nd of
March 1886, and ascended the main Kasai without much diffi-
culty. The Bakutu people along its banks had hitherto suc-
ceeded in preventing communication between the upper and
middle Kasai, but the Peace easily traversed the forty or fifty
*%%&&£&
57. A GROUP OF BALUBA NATIVES (VON WISSMANN'S EXPEDITION)
miles of hostile riverain population, and thenceforward found the
Bangodi and Baileo people perfectly friendly and willing to sell
food and firewood. The languages spoken in these parts were
quite unknown to Grenfell and his crew, and communications
could only be carried on through signs. The confluence of
the Kasai with the Sankuru was duly noted, and the Sankuru,
in spite of its strong current, was ascended for some twelve
miles to make certain of its separate identity. The journey up
the main Kasai was resumed till the Peace reached the con-
fluence of the Kasai and the great River Lulua.
1 These confluences of rivers in the Congo basin are frequently hidden by islands
and sandbanks, and the broad streams are like lakes studded with islands.
THE RIVERS OF CENTRAL CONGOLAND 149
On the nth of April they left the main Kasai for the Luebo-
Lulua, and this part of the river being in flood, they experienced
great difficulty in obtaining firewood, as the bank was either
a precipitous cliff or a marsh without trees, and the water was
really flowing above the low trees growing along the more
normal shore. Here and there they came across elephant
camps, places where elephants had stopped to repose and to
feed on the scrub. The trunks and branches of trees had been
torn down or uprooted by the elephants, and furnished excellent
firewood.
" What increases our difficulties of wooding " (writes Grenfell in his
journal) " is that we are going through an epidemic of measles. Six
of our men are down, three others are convalescent. This crisis of
measles does not trouble me half so much as the abscess in the palm
of Baron von Nimptsch's left hand. Measles we know what to do with
and what to expect from, but the exact character of this abscess and how
to deal with it are open to questions. A month ago at the Equator
Station Baron von N. asked Mr. Eddie to look at his little finger, the
tip of which was swollen and painful. ... A fortnight elapsed without
any particular indications, and then the palm of the hand began to
swell and become inflamed, the pain being intense."
The diary is much taken up with the blood-poisoning that
followed from this apparently trivial affection of the finger and
the surgical operations and experiments of Grenfell which
eventually saved this administrator from losing his arm.
In the course of this journey in the early spring of 1886
Grenfell had surveyed the Kwa- Kasai to its junction with the
Sankuru River, and to the confluence of the Kasai and Lulua.
The Lulua he had explored as far as the entrance of the Luebo,
had conveyed the great traveller von Wissmann a third of the
way across Africa, and had enabled the Administrator of the
Congo Free State (von Nimptsch) to visit these remarkable
waterways. * He had also rendered assistance to the small
steamer En Avant belonging to the Congo Free State, which
had the German explorers Wolf 1 and Schneider on board.
He then returned to the Congo and made his way once more
to the Equator Station.
In his journal at this time there are many entries regarding
the Kwa-Kasai, Kwango, and Sankuru which, with other notes,
may more fitly be given here.
The breadth of the Kwa estuary for this mighty river
system of all south-central Congoland is only 700 yards, but
1 Dr. Ludwig Wolf was the practical discoverer of the main east and west course
of the Sankuru River.
ISO GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
the depth is very great and the volume of water outpoured
into the Congo is an average 321,000 cubic feet per second,
at a rate — in flood time — of five to six miles an hour. This
greatly exceeds the contribution of the Mubangi-Wele, which
near its confluence with the Congo has a volume computed at
some 200,000 cubic feet per second.
Eleven miles up from its junction with the Congo the Kwa
estuary (hitherto rather narrow — "a deeply cut chasm in the
rocky hills") broadens into a lake-like expansion two to five
miles across.
As already stated, the common native name for the outlet of
the Kasai-Mfini-Kwango is Kwa, at the mouth of this deep
canal. Higher up it is Kwau, and Grenfell supposes this last
name to be a contraction of Kwango. 1
The colour of the Kwa water varies from "bright brick-
red " to light cafd cm lait "■ — a contrast to the tea-brown clearer
water of the Congo. On the north or right bank of the Kwa
there is a line of dark indigo-coloured water, often sharply
defined from the brick-red of the bulk of the current. This
seems to come from Mfini and Lake Leopold. On this side of
the river much grass comes down in December. 2
People on the north and south banks of the Kwa near the
junction with the Mfini are generally known as Babuma, but
seem to have different tribal names amongst themselves. They
were subject to a woman chieftain at Mushie, an important
place, now a station of the Congo Free State, and near the
junction of the Lukenye-Mfini with the Kwa. Near the
junction of the Kwango with the Kasai, Grenfell noticed plenty
of game in 1886 — leopards, elephants, hippos., crocodiles, and
buffaloes. He gives as alternative names for the Lukenye
River "Lukeia," and for the upper Kasai "Lumu" and " Mbe"
(mbe = red) ; for the middle Kasai, " Engela." For the Kwango
there are the names Bankui, Bombeia, Pfieri, and Nkimi. The
Kwango would appear to be called Nkimi (Njali Nkimi) at its
junction with the Kasai, and the Juma-Kwilu, the great twin-
sister stream, is known at its union with the Kwango as
Ngali mbe ( = Red river). The current on the northern Kasai
runs at the rate of three miles an hour. 3
1 Kwango should properly be pronounced Kwangu, but the first is the established
spelling.
2 In December 1903 Grenfell noticed many grass islands floating down the
Kasai. As they were on the dark-water side of the river he supposed they came
from Lake Leopold or the Lukenye.
3 On the main Kasai the water rose so high in March 1886 that no rocks were
visible. There is constant falling of the clay banks both on the Congo and Kasai.
The water undermines the bank, it falls, and thus the channel is constantly varying.
THE RIVERS OF CENTRAL CONGOLAND 151
Most of the people about the Kwango-Kasai junction were
unmarked on the face, except for the " Saturn " mark on the
temples. The women were decorated with cicatrices on the
abdomen. Both sexes here wear numbers of brass rings round
their necks. One man was seen thus wearing eight rings
each half an inch thick. These brass neck-rings seem to be
worn as a medicine. " Some of the men on the banks of the
upper Kasai (Basende and Basongo tribes) wear white wigs,
and paint their bodies yellow." Grenfell states that the
Bambala people extend north to the Kwango confluence.
At this junction of the Kasai and Kwango, the houses are
round.
The Kwango is navigable as far south as the Kingunji
rapids from September to April, and is lowest in August. 1 [In
1904 the river was at least three feet higher than in 1886 ; and
the current was very much stronger than in 1886, but was still
three or four feet below the maximum. In mid-January 1904
the water was rising below the Wamba junction with the
Kwango, but was falling at the Kingunji Rapids.]
The shores of the lower Kwango below its junction with
the Kwilu (which river is sometimes called the Juma) are
thickly grown with papyrus ; but where the marshy region
ends fine green- boughed acacia trees line the banks. In this
district Grenfell also noticed orange trees. Above the Wamba
confluence [" here there are Bamfunu people, also known as
Bangulungulu "] the scenery becomes grand and beautiful.
Mountains rise in the background high above the river valley,
really the broken edges of the tableland from which the
Kwango descends far to the south. Lower terraces 2 skirt
the watercourse, and the rain has carved these cliffs into
pinnacles, saddles, and sharp ridges, or has scooped them
out into amphitheatres and battlements, leaving here and there
remarkable cones or domes of sandstone. Some of the cliffs
seem to be white with kaolin. The hanging woods are gay
with the scarlet-sepalled Mussaenda. The Kingunji rapids
1 The Kwango, as already mentioned earlier in this work, was the first known of
the great affluents of the Congo, was in fact known to the Portuguese merchants and
missionaries in the sixteenth century. But knowledge of it did not extend farther
north than the rapids of Kingunji, perhaps no farther than the latitude of San Salva-
dor, near the large settlement of Popokabaka. Major von Mechow, an Austrian
explorer of the Congo basin, reached the Kwango a hundred miles south of this
point in 1880. He put a boat on the river and descended it as far as the Kingunji
rapids, but from this point had to return. It was left to Grenfell and Bentley in the
autumn of 1886 to complete von Mechow's studies of the Kwango by surveying the
whole remainder of its course from the Kingunji rapids to the junction with the
Kasai-Kwa. They were accompanied by a German, Dr. Mense.
2 " In some places 1,000 feet above the river." (Bentley.)
152 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
(150 miles above the Kasai confluence) are only a fall of about
four feet, but the low reef of rock is impassable for a steamer.
[The State has now made a canal round the rapids.] The
country along the banks of the Kwango in 1886-7 was rich in
game — elephants, buffalo, antelopes, red river- hogs and hippo-
potami. In some places on the river bank, huge deposits
of fresh-water oyster-shells were found, eight inches thick,
seemingly the kitchen-middens of early races.
Below Kingunji the (?) Bamfunu people mark their faces in
the Bateke fashion, but most of them are not cicatrized. A
: ' - ; ; ;■'*.,■ > ,' « i'^. ■'.■■?.■(>, {J'," : i--i-
58. THE LOWER KWANGO RIVER
few exhibit triangular scars on the abdomen. The majority wear
European cloth of good quality and trade with the people of
the Zombo plateau, who understand the Kongo language. On
the Kwango above Kingunji the Bayaka people wear a closely
tied cloth as a head-dress, with a tail six to ten inches long
hanging down behind like a pigtail. "The women are small
and pleasant-looking. There are a few guns, but mostly bows
and arrows of the Kasai type. In each bundle of arrows there
is one with a big club-shaped end. Most of the other arrows
have barbed hard-wood points, the points being attached to
the shaft by a well-made splice. The canoes were very
primitive."
The Kasai, below its junction with the Kwango system,
THE RIVERS OF CENTRAL CONGOLAND 153
widens out into a beautiful lake-like expanse which has been
named " Wissmann Pool." Above this confluence (that is, to
the east of it) hills begin to appear on the north bank from one
to two hundred feet in height. These culminate in Mt. Pogge
(discovered and named by Wissmann), a dome-like hill with a
broad round base, about 400 feet high. Mt. Pogge in this land
of relative flatness is a notable landmark for many miles.
The country on either side of the lower Kasai between
the Juma-Kwilu on the south and the Lukenye on the north
is not flat marshland, but gently undulating, with low, swelling
downs covered with rich grass and occasional clumps of borassus
palms. Wissmann notes the absence of papyrus from the
middle Kasai. 1
The river flows through a land of red clay (the banks except
at flood time are often twenty feet high and very red), and this
gives to the Kasai its constant tinge of brick-red. The red clay
overlies a stratum of light-coloured sandstone impervious to
water and horizontal in position. From this sandstone proceed
the rocky spurs or reefs which advance into the river between
each sandy bay. Along the banks a fringe of forest remains.
"Tall, white-stemmed trees" is a constant note in Grenfell's
Kasai surveys, also " bombax trees, raphia and oil palms,
calamus, borassus, tall arums (probably Cyrtosperma), baobabs,
and occasional pandanus or screw-pine. On land once cleared
there are brakes of pineapples.
Water-birds were abundant on this broad stream, where the
current on the whole is not so swift as in the Kasai tributaries. 2
Grenfell on the broader reaches of the Kasai notes the abund-
ance of pelicans, darters, white and other coloured herons,
storks, spur-winged geese, ducks, scissor-bill, terns, fishing-
vultures, and kites.
The width of. the Sankuru at its junction with the Kasai
was estimated by Grenfell at 450 yards. The current was
very strong. [Later, he writes that in July it is almost too
strong to be stemmed by a boat with oars or a small steamer.]
Between the Sankuru and the Kasai the ground rises to hills
of six or seven hundred or even a thousand feet with clefts in
1 S. P. Verner thus describes the scenery of the lower Kasai : "Vast, savannas
roll incessantly towards the horizon, covered with high grass and tangled cane brakes.
The soil is deep, thick, black muck. Marshes, bogs, and miry fens abound. Deep,
sluggish creeks flow lazily towards the river. Water-fowl of every description haunt
the banks, and crocodiles and hippopotami are plentiful. Native villages are rare.
The land looks wild, the wild landscape lonely."
a " Very strong current in April." The force of the stream is least and the river
is apparently at its lowest in October.
154 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
between. In fact one leaves here the area of the ancient lake
basin.
The Kasai was for all practical purposes discovered by-
Livingstone on February 27th 1854 just at the bend in its ex-
treme upper course where, after flowing some hundred and
fifty miles eastward from its source in the Chibokwe Mountains,
it turns rather abruptly to the north. The Kasai rises almost
within a day's walk from the sources of the Kwango and the
affluents of the Kwanza River. Livingstone 1 writes that it is
59. THE SANKURU RIVER NEAR LUSAMBO
Fish traps and fish weirs in the foreground.
locally known as the Kasai or Loke. Loke seems to be the
commoner name of the two at about 1 50 miles from its source.
He refers to people on its banks (when he crossed it) as the
Kasabi. Portuguese geographers style the river at its origin
the " Cassabe." If this is the ultimate form of the name, it is
interesting. Ka- is only a prefix (in this region an honorific or
affectionate prefix), but sabi is a very widespread South Bantu
root for river names. The actual name Kasai does not cling
1 Livingstone in 1854 also recorded the existence of the Lulua, Lubilash (San-
kuru), and Kwilu, besides, of course, the Kwango. He laid down the courses and
the junction of all these rivers and their ultimate absorption into the Congo quite
correctly (from native information). This information having been published by
Livingstone in 1857, it is curious that Stanley should have so long ignored the right
theory.
THE RIVERS OF CENTRAL CONGOLAND 155
to the great river farther north than about 8° S. Lat. After
that its name is Nyele down to the confluence with the Lulua
(which at this spot is called the Mile). Then it is called
Sankuru or Shankulu, and, lower down, Nzadi, Nshale, Mele,
Bulumbu or Kama. Nzadi (or Nshale, Nzari Ngali) simply
means big river, and is a word applied also to the Kwango
and to the main western Congo, hence the Portuguese name
for Congo = Zaire [vide notes on pages 143 and 283].
Short stretches of the middle Kasai are no doubt navigable,
but the natives along its course are so determinedly hostile to
Europeans that the mighty stream is practically unexplored in
detail between the (? abandoned) Congolese post of Dilolo in
Lat. io° 40' and the Pogge Falls in Lat. 6° 40'. Navigability
for steamers from the north ends at the Wissmann Falls in
about 5 20', just above the junction between Kasai and Lulua.
At the Wissmann Falls, at the junction of the Luebo and
Lulua, and again at Lusambo on the Sankuru, barriers of large,
rounded boulders extend entirely across the river, being almost
complete barriers to navigation, and at low water almost en-
tirely uncovered. They are considered by Mr. Verner 1 to
mark the ancient shore-line of the vast Congo Lake. 2
The whole country between the Kasai and Sankuru (accord-
ing to Grenfell and Verner) is strewn with boulders varying in
size from a football to a large hen-coop : —
" They are composed of dark rock of medium hardness, rounded in
shape, often striated and scratched . . . possibly sandstone. There are
also pebbles from a peanut to a baseball in size, chiefly of quartz, also
apparently pieces of limestone. . . . The first soil under the humus is
red clay, then a bluish-white clay used for pottery and full of pebbles,
and then the sandstone."
Verner thus describes the stratification of the cliffs above
the Kasai : —
" First a layer of red ferruginous clay about seven feet deep ; then
a mass of irregular sandstone boulders extending downwards for ten
feet ; then a thick layer of bluish-white clay about thirty feet in depth
and full of pebbles, and under this a layer of crumbling sandstone."
1 The same writer {Pioneering- in Central Africa) gives this pen picture of the
Kasai above the Wissmann Falls : —
" Roaring waters, mighty, dense, tomb-like forests, dazzling waterfalls, grunting
hippopotami, jumping fish, and the red glare of the tropical sun on water, sand and sky."
2 "The path from Luebo to Ndombe followed what was clearly an ancient shore-
line, the margin of a primeval inland sea. The prevailing type of the rocks was very
hard sandstone, with crystalline irruptive trap, their stratification tilted at an angle of
over sixty-five degrees, and there were masses of rugged conglomerate below the
mountain fissures. Some of these fissures were of considerable size, and were filled
by charming little lakes, often of great depth."
156 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
What Mr. Verner describes as fossil amber (of which
masses are occasionally found) is more probably fossil gum
copal. Both he and Grenfell praise the beauty of the scenery
in the region where the Kasai leaves the edge of the vast,
broken Lunda plateau. Verner is especially enthusiastic as to
the country between the Kasai and the Luebo on the road
between Ndombe and Bindundu : —
" The bald, rocky mountains rise for about a thousand feet above
the surrounding plains, some of them of jagged limestone. The long,
yellow flood of the Kasai — a golden ribbon in a dress of green forests,
which extend on either side of the yellow flood to the mountain tops,
which are distant about twenty miles on either side. Southwards, the
mighty heads of the Wauters Mountains, 1 outlined against the sky,
range upon range, peak above peak, glad reminders of higher and
cooler lands. The roar of rushing waters is everywhere in the air,
streamlets springing from hilly fountains or marshy plateaux, their
courses being indicated by narrow bands of woodland and long, silvery
lines of fog. Little mountain lakes gleam in the radiant sunshine,
emeralds set in a crown of golden hills."
There is a good deal of high land in the enclave between
the Sankuru-Lubudi and the Lulua. The forests in this region
are limited chiefly to the river valleys. It is only apparently
between the Lulua and middle Sankuru and the Lomami that
they vie in continuous density with the forests of the Aruwimi
basin.
" The plains adjoining the forests are lovely and unique. Glades of
short, evergreen grass dotted with small woodlands, palm groves, and
pineapple thickets here and there. The trees are often stunted, with
very large yellow, mock-orange fruit, their bark rendered impervious to
fire through the hardening process of bush fires that have gone on for
ages ; tangled thickets of thorns and lianas, and loveliest flowers, orchids
and ferns are scattered over the whole." (Verner.)
On the banks of the Sankuru Grenfell noticed a species ol
raphia palm new to him. The natives called it " Mabundu,"
and the enormous midribs of the mighty fronds were bright
orange-yellow. This palm supplies the bast or fibre used for
weaving the now celebrated pile cloths of the Kasai peoples
and of the Bakuba country.
The name "Sankuru" should really be pronounced San-
kulu. It may mean " The Great Father " or " Father of Great-
1 The Wauters Mountains bordering on the north the upper basin of the Kasai
are spurs of hard sandstone and conglomerate. They really border on the north the
immense fertile, populous plateau of Lunda. To the north of them the land slopes
downwards towards the central basin of the Congo, and is a succession of rolling hills
and broad, undulating valleys, rivers and streams everywhere bordered with gigantic
forests.
THE RIVERS OF CENTRAL CONGOLAND 157
ness." The term is also applied to the Kasai River in the same
region. In its extreme upper course the Sankuru is known as
Lubilash, a name first recorded by Livingstone in 1854. The
natives in some districts look upon the Sankuru as the main
stream and the
Kasai as a tribu- "'"j^^SS^^H
tary. Neverthe- ■ ;~".r "k \ ' * '•^■^^^MM^ ^^^ ^.
less, according to -*sM- <* *? W"^.' A ■ ,\ -■, ?,-*., ■ .. -•
Grenfell the
Kasai above its
confluence with
the Sankuru has
a volume of some
89,000 cubic feet
per second, while
the outflow of
the Sankuru is
only 42,000 cubic
feet.
There might
be a better case
argued for the
equality in impor-
tance of the
Lulua with the
Kasai. It has
nearly as long a
course, 1 but Gren-
fell computes its
volume as only
35,000 cubic feet
per second
against the
54,000 cubic feet
of the Kasai. In
its lower course the Lulua flows through vast forests of oil palms.
" There were large groves of oil palm trees," writes Verner, " with
tangled thickets growing so closely as almost to choke up the path.
The boys said that these groves were the sites of former villages, now
removed to other places. This custom of moving their towns I found
to be a well-established rule. The natives said that after a while the
60. KASAI CLOTH OF RAISED PILE
Made from raphia "bast " or fibre (the substance of the leaflets of the
young fronds).
1 The Lulua rises in the extreme south of Congoland, within a short distance ot
the source of the head stream of the main Zambezi, just as the Kasai takes its origin
close to the beginnings of the western upper Zambezi (Lungwebungo).
158 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
ground of their towns became bad. The evil spirits seek to overwhelm
them, and they must build on new and holy ground. From hygienic
and sanitary conditions one would certainty approve of this unique
African custom. When a town is deserted the land becomes grown
over from the seeds left about the houses, and their productive power is
remarkable. The palms in these groves produce wine, oil, cabbage, and
bamboo, besides palm fibre for making cloth and the leaves for covering
houses. The pineapples afforded us a generous feast, and but for the
lack of water would have sufficed for our lunch on the way." (Verner.)
Wissmann, Ludwig Wolf, Grenfell, Verner, all refer in
their writings to the astonishing abundance of the pineapple in
South Central Congoland. In its way this fact is nearly as
remarkable as the spread of the tobacco plant. Both are of
American origin, and both have only had about 330 years in
which to spread nearly all over tropical Africa. The manioc,
papaw, and red pepper are other instances of American plants
that have penetrated rapidly to the innermost recesses of the
Dark Continent.
There is a great spur of mountain country (the Samba
Mountains), rising in places to perhaps 4,000 feet, which bifur-
cates with the Zambezi-Congo range near Mount Kamea, and
divides the basin of the Lualaba from that of the Lulua and
Sankuru. This strongly marked earth-wrinkle divides into
two main spurs under the 9th degree of S. Lat., and acts
as the fountain-head of the Lomami, separating its basin from
that of the Lualaba and of the Sankuru- Luembe. The Samba
mountains contain regions of remarkable natural beauty, diver-
sified as they are with many mountain lakes and tarns (the
largest of which is Lake Lubangole), with noble forests, naked
granite rocks, fruitful plantations, and innumerable streams.
As they advance, their spurs towards the north on either
side of the Lomami crumble into hills and are softened into
rolling clowns, magnificently forested. The Batetela-Bankusu
country which lies athwart the middle course of the Lomami
is exceedingly rich and fertile, a level prairie land with a deep
black soil. Here remain some patches of primeval woodland,
though the land has been much more disforested by man than
is the case with the middle and upper Sankuru basin.
The peoples of South-Central Congoland may be conve-
niently enumerated here. The Balolo in the centre (also
known as Ndolo, Mongo, Bankundu), the Ngombe on the north
and north-west (near the main Congo), the Bayanzi on the
west, together with the Babuma people along the lower Kasai,
THE RIVERS OF CENTRAL CONGOLAND 159
account for most of the main groups of Bantu negroes
(Pygmies excepted) between the region bounded by the
Lomami River, the Lopori-Lulongo, the lakes Ntomba and
Leopold II, and the River
Lukenye. The Balolo peoples
(as classified by language) ex-
tend a short distance east-
wards of the Lomami till
they come in contact with the
lower Lomami tribes belong-
ing to the Soko and Kele
groups or the non - Bantu
Bamanga. Where the ground
rises above the old level of
the Congo Lake and the
Lomami is flowing through a
hilly country south of Lat.
2° 30' S. one encounters a
people like the Benakamba
and Ba-vumbu of purer Bantu
speech, connected linguisti-
cally with the tribes east of
the Equatorial Lualaba or
those of the great Luba
group.
The Basongo or Basongo-
meno 1 and the Bashilange
(Bankulu) are the principal
tribal designations of the
Bantu-speaking peoples be-
tween the Lukenye on the
north and the Kasai-Sankuru
on the south. The Batetela
between Lomami and Sankuru
(like the Bakusu or Bankusu
farther east) seem to be con-
nected in origin and language
with the Manyema : perhaps also with the recently formed,
mongrel, warlike tribe known as the " Zappo-zaps " (Basonge).
Between the Wamba River on the west and the Kasai on
the north and east there is a bewildering medley of peoples,
1 This term means " they sharpen " or " they sharpen teeth." A somewhat similar
people known as Basonge seems to be found between Sankuru and Lomami, south of
the Batetela.
6l. A TYPICAL MUYANZI (A SAWYER OF
THE MISSION AT BOLOBO)
The Bayanzi or Babangi range from the lower Kasai to
the main Congo and the Mubangi confluence.
160 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
described of late in the writings of Mr. Emil Torday. 1 Their
tribal names and approximate localities are sufficiently illus-
trated in the ethnographical map which accompanies this book.
Varying very much in physical development (though belonging
mostly to the Forest negro type), they are mostly associated
with the speaking of corrupt, worn-down Bantu dialects about
equally related to the Luba, Kongo, Teke, and Yanzi groups.
Besides the already mentioned Bayaka and Bayanzi and
their kindred, these include such important tribes as the Bahuana
and Bambala, the Babunda, Bapindi (or Bapeinde), Badinga,' 1
Basamba, Bakwese, Basongo (akin to those, no doubt, who
dwell between the Kasai and the Lukenye) and Bangongo.
Farther south are the Balua, who are evidently a northern
section of the A-lunda people (rather than a western branch of
the Baluba). Then before the real Lunda territories are
reached (within Portuguese political limits) comes an unin-
habited tract ranged over by the Ba-kioko raiders.
Between the Luanje River and the Kasai are the Bashilcle
and the Titkongo, fierce peoples very hostile at present to the
white man. The Bashilele (or Bena Lindi) are related to
the Bashilange? and they again to the Basongo and the great,
far-spreading Luba group.
As to the language affinities of the Tttkongo 4 ' or Ba-kongo
little or nothing is known. The Bapindi (-mpende, -peindi) 5
1 Published in Man and the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of
Great Britam and Ireland.
2 "The (Badinga) people along the (lower) Kasai are inclined to be turbulent and
drunken. Abundance of palm wine makes them so. They are very little cicatrized,
but wear the " Saturn " mark (dot within a ring) on the temples. Nakedness here is
less the fashion than in the Babuma country. The chiefs especially wear ample
skirts of cloth and prettily worked caps." (Grenfell.)
3 " The Bashilange maintain constant relations with the Kioko, those warlike
and intelligent blacks whose original home was in the mountains of the upper
Kwango. The Kioko are bold and cunning traders who would hold their own as
merchants with the Arabs themselves. The half-breeds of Angola also frequently
visit the Bashilange, and particularly the Kioko. Hence it comes that one often
finds among these tribes crucifixes, crosses, and chaplets. A great number of
fetishes bear crosses, and these are among the most venerated.
" Through the Kioko these last have learnt to cultivate india-rubber, which they
extract from creepers and lianas by means of triangular incisions. The Kioko have
in a way the monopoly of trading among these tribes ; all their ivory and india-
rubber have been hitherto transported to Malanje (Portuguese territory)." (Torday.)
4 Tu- is a plural prefix (usually diminutive or affectionate in sense) which answers
to the singular prefix Ka-. The root of this name, therefore, is " Kongo," which means
both " spear" and " hunter." There is nothing for or against the Tu- or Ba-kongo of
the Kasai being the far-back progenitors of the Bakongo of western Congo. The
Tukongo of the Kasai are said to speak a dialect of Luba, but this language is not
inherently dissimilar to the Kongo tongue of the west.
5 " The Bampende are tatued in a strange way. They are people of unusual
good looks — quite a handsome lot of men. Among these and other tribes in the
southern basin of the Congo, Kasongo appears to mean smith, blacksmith." (Verner.)
THE RIVERS OF CENTRAL CONGOLAND 161
inhabit the lands on either side of the middle Kasai (in an
interrupted range) and extend as far east as the Lulua.
According to Torday, the more aboriginal tribes of this
Kwango-Kwilu- Kasai region are the black-skinned lumpish
Babunda, 1 the Bayaka, Basamba, Basongo, and Wa- or Ba-
ngongo. The Bak-
wese (who seem to ' " : } l ~ Jgjg* >\
have migrated from
the south-east, leav- !
ing colonies behind /jL-\
in the basin of the
upper Lualaba) are
related to the Im-
bangala of the mid-
dle Kwango, the
Imbangala being
obviously the "Jag-
gas " of Angolan
history.
Nearly all these
tribes are still canni-
bals, except the
western Bayaka,
most of the Bak-
wese, and the Balua.
In all this vast area
between the Kwan-
go and the Kasai
— or at any rate the
Luanje — there are
seemingly no Pyg-
my people linger-
ing. These, under
the name of Batwa,
only make their
appearance on the
east bank of the middle Kasai. Grenfell discovered many
traces of Pygmy peoples in Central Congoland and up the
Lomami. No doubt they continue their range uninterruptedly
southwards to the Sankuru. Between Kasai, Sankuru, and
Lomami they have been reported by many travellers, but
1 -bunda, -bondo, -bundu, -buno, -ftonda is a varying root right across Southern
Congoland and much else of South-West Bantu Africa, and is often associated with
serfs or helot tribes.
62. (i) NATIVE FETISH FROM THE SOUTHERN PART OF
THE CATARACT CONGO
The strings tied round the neck are offerings for benefits received.
(2) IMAGE OF ST. CHRISTOPHER AND THE INFANT
CHRIST, FOUND IN THE SAN SALVADOR DIS-
TRICT
(Possibly some two or three hundred years old. Has been used as a
fetish). Similar types to (1) and (?) are found among the Kioko and
Bashilange.
I.
-M
i6 2 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
their southward range does not seem to extend beyond 6° S.
Lat. or 6° 30'. They dwell in numbers, peaceably and happily,
where the Bakuba rule.
The Bakuba are a most remarkable race, an unsolved
mystery as yet. The Bantu language of the southern Bakuba
(only so far illustrated by a few words collected by Henrique
de Carvalho and von Wissmann) is shared by the Bakete
(a helot tribe of ordi-
nary negro type) and
by the Batwa Pyg-
mies who dwell
amongst the Ba-
kuba, and this dia-
lect is very peculiar
and quite distinct
from the Luba
species. But it is
corrupt and not of
an archaic type.
The Bakuba speech
between the Lubudi
and the Sankuru is
allied to the Balolo
tongue and the
Manyema group.
Physically the Ba-
kuba aristocracy
suggests affinity with
the Bahima of West-
ern Uganda and
consequently with
the Hamitic ne-
groids of the Eastern
Sudan. The present habitat of the Bakuba is the region
between the Sankuru, Lubudi, and Lulua ; though isolated
chieftainships exist east of the Lubudi and between the Lulua
and the Kasai (Ndombe), and Grenfell states that they have
pushed westwards along the main Kasai into Yanzi territory.
The Bakete were apparently the original Bantu race of the
Sankuru-Lulua almost-island, extending, however, some of their
settlements south of the Lulua. They are a dirty, somewhat
retrograde people who have seemingly degenerated from a
state of higher civilization, partly owing to the degree to
which they have been enslaved by the Bakuba and Baluba
63. BAKUBA AXES OF WROUGHT IRON, FROM THE
KASAI-SANICURU
These are carried before a chief as a sign of authority (Grenfell). The
Bakuba and Baluba are great iron- workers.
THE RIVERS OF CENTRAL CONGOLAND 163
chieftains. Besides the Bakete, there would seem to be along
the south bank of the lower Sankuru and on the north bank of
the Kasai, above the Sankuru confluence, a rather Pygmy-like
tribe called Bat eke (vide p. j"j).
East of the middle Kasai, south of the lower Lulua and of
the Lubefu, west of the Lomami (though extending their
influence and linguistic connections far beyond these limits), is
the domain of the remarkable Luba peoples, who were no
doubt fundamentally connected in history with the Lua (Rua)
and Lunda tribes (and even the Bakuba caste). The range of
the Luba language under many desig-
nations and in many dialects extends
from the Lukenye River on the north
to about 1 1° 3c/ S. Lat. on the south,
and from the Loanje River and the
Kasai on the west to the Lualaba-
Lufira on the east. The Baluba may
have been originally akin to the
Bakuba- — a caste of Hamitico-negroid
hunter-adventurers who invaded the
central basin of the Congo from the
east or north-east. They seem to
have founded the empire of Lunda,
the commercial (Imbangala) colonies
of the Kwango River, to have moulded
the warrior tribe of the Ba-kioko, and
to have created powerful monarchies
here and there between the Kasai,
Sankuru, and Lake Mweru. In the
valley of the Lulua River they are usually known as the Bena
Lulua ; in the east they are Barua ; elsewhere, Turuba, Bikenge,
" Moiyo," 1 Biomba, Bakwalulua, Bakwambuya, etc.
There are, however, other tribes in Lubaland with sufficient
individuality of manners or dialect to be separately classified,
though in reality they may prove (linguistically) part of the
Luba confederation. These are, for example, the Kanyoka
(Kanyika, Kanyuka), between the Lulua and the middle
Sankuru. [These people have the distinction of being first
mentioned (in connection with the Lualaba) and their language
inscribed by the missionary Sigismund Koelle in 185 1. 2 ]
There are the Bambwe and the Kalebwe on either side of
64. A SPECIMEN OF LUBA
POTTERY
A water-cooler from Luluabourg
(Lulua River).
1 From the current greeting " Moiyo," signifying " Life."
2 From a Kanyoka (Kanyika) slave who was released by the British cruisers
and landed at Sierra Leone.
1 64 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
the mid-Sankuru, and the Ba-samba (already mentioned) far
to the south. The Kalunda of the upper Sankuru are prob-
ably related to the Lunda people, and the Babondo of the
Luembe River to the Babunda of the Kwilu basin.
The Peace (still on her fourth voyage) after depositing
. Wissmann on the
Lulua-Luebo junction
returned to Kwamouth
on the main Congo,
and then steamed up-
river to the Equator
station and on to Stan-
ley Falls. 1
At this time interest
had begun to revive in
Muta Nzige or the
Beatrice Gulf of Stan-
ley's expedition of
1875-7. In 1875 Stan-
ley had discovered
Mount Ruwenzori (in
an imperfect way),
calling it Mount Ed-
win Arnold and guess-
^^^^^^^Sk^^^^^^^l ' n .^' ' ls height al lifu.-i.-n
BJIjajSN. ^^gJj^Mj?^,;^^ thousand feel. Near
- -W A* ffi^ * -. the base Q f t kj s m ighty
mountain mass, the
summits of which were
persistently concealed
by cloud, was on the
east the shallow gulf
now called Lake
Dweru. This was con-
nected by a narrow,
winding channel with the Katwe Bay of Lake Albert Edward.
Stanley had believed that he had here touched a great lake with
several arms or gulfs. The natives gave it the name of Muta
Nzige, which like the Luta Nzige of Lake Albert means "the
1 Grenfell repeatedly notices the remarkable change of the flora where the low,
swampy basin of the main Congo suddenly gives place to a rocky formation in the
vicinity of the Stanley Falls.
65. CLOTH OF RAISE!) PILE FROM THE BAKUBA
COUNTRY (SANKURU RIVER)
THE RIVERS OF CENTRAL CONGOLAND 165
killer of locusts," because the locust flights so often fell from
weariness into the waters and were drowned. Until, in 1890,
Stanley himself had revealed to the world the shrunken limits
of the rechristened Lake Albert Edward, Muta Nzige with its
mysterious affinities — ? Congo ?Nile ? Tanganyika — was the
goal of many an ambitious young explorer. Grenfell greatly
longed for the means and an opportunity to go thither. Wiss-
mann, whom he had just set down on the Lulua, intended to
make for Muta Nzige ; and Dr. Lenz, the Austrian explorer
(whose only really great journey was one made from Morocco
to Timbuktu in 1880) was already starting from the Stanley
Falls in that direction under an escort of Arabs. 1
In his diary at this time Grenfell has much to say on the
statecraft of Tipu-Tipu, who had been installed as representa-
tive of the Congo Free State by Stanley himself. Tipu-Tipu's
lieutenants sometimes got out of hand, but it is doubtful
whether but for the Arab rising against the Germans on the
east and the growing ambition of the Belgians on the west
Stanley's original idea of an Arab state in the eastern half of
the Congo basin under Belgian protection was a bad expedient.
Of course it served the purpose later of the Germans and
Belgians and even of the British to paint the conduct of the
Maskat and Zanzibar Arabs in the worst light, because they
were undoubtedly a very serious rival in the African field,
serious inasmuch as after the preliminary slave-raiding and
ravaging they were less exacting in their demands on the
natives. They introduced a stage of civilization that appealed
peculiarly to the negro instincts, and devoted themselves with
singular assiduity to agriculture of a very practical kind. Nor
were the arts unrepresented. Grenfell and others allude to the
beautiful interior decorations of the Arab mosques in towns on
the Upper Congo, and they as well as the present writer have
noted the artistic carving of the door-frames and the doors of
the dwelling-houses.
The State at this time was represented officially by
Mr. Deane, an Englishman, who was a relative of Sir Francis
de Winton (then Governor of the Congo Free State). Deane
was subsequently killed — years afterwards — by a buffalo. At
intervals in his diary Grenfell writes strongly in his praise, as
being one of the bravest men he has ever known, and a very
1 Lenz soon turned back, and made a somewhat humdrum journey instead
across Africa down the already known course of the Congo. Wissmann also failed
at Nyangwe and Ujiji to organize his journey to Muta Nzige and returned home via
Nyasaland.
1 66 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
worthy representative of European civilization. In 1886 he
had to keep up the authority of the Congo Free State amongst
the turbulent Arab slave-traders in a small stockade, with only
about seventy soldiers — half Hausa and half Bangala, with two
Krupp guns.
On this journey to the Falls Grenfell noted with pleasure
66. CONGO PIONEERS
Beginning on left, lower rank — Dr. A. Sims, Grenfell, Captain Deane ; right hand, upper rank — Michael
Richards, A. Billington, J. G. Brown.
that the first work of the infant Congo State amongst the
Aruwimi (Basoko) people — those who had been so hostile both
to Stanley in 1877 and to Grenfell himself in 1884 — had been
most advantageous. These people were now perfectly friendly,
and prepared supplies of food and firewood against the arrival
of steamers. Much surveying work was done by Grenfell on
this 1886 journey to the end of eastern navigation on the
Upper Congo.
THE RIVERS OF CENTRAL CONGOLAND 167
On his return to Stanley Pool in the summer of 1886,
Grenfell conferred with Captain Bove at Brazzaville, an Italian
officer charged with the inquiry as to a suitable field for Italian
emigration. Belgian prospects at this time were not very
flourishing. Sir Francis de Winton had left the Congo never
to return. The Acting Governor lived at Boma, and had but
little influence over the rest of his colleagues, who indulged in
silly quarrels and fought duels.
On the 30th of September Grenfell started away again
up-river on the fifth voyage of the Peace, taking with him
a number of Baptist missionaries to be placed at new stations,
and also giving passages to officials of the Congo State. It was
intended on this occasion to explore Lake Leopold II. The
steamer passed without incident up the Kwa and the Mfini or
Lufini. As to the Mfini River, he writes in October if
" I am greatly impressed by the value of this river. 1 Its current
runs about 75 to 100 feet a minute. It passes by gently rolling downs
of very friable soil, with plenty of people (wealthy, as they wear lots of
brass collars). The long, low foreshore is a disadvantage here and there,
but the high land comes down at certain places to the water's edge.
No other equal length of waterway that I know has so many people.
Not a single unfriendly demonstration as yet. The villages are often
perched on huge anthills. The people do not cicatrize their faces, but
tattoo on the temples the circular mark within a ring (the ' Saturn '
mark). The women are slightly marked on abdomen. No one wears
European cloth here. Their great industry (besides making pottery of
graceful shapes) is reed-burning for the extraction of salt. We were
greatly puzzled at first as to the object of the huge stacks of dry reeds
like large grass dwellings seen from a distance. Lot of crocodiles, also
pelicans, herons, sacred ibis, crowned cranes, and the like. Plenty of
hippos and but few mosquitoes. I have not seen the millet bread
Stanley speaks of: perhaps the wrong season. About three days'
journey up the Mfini we met a ' Kiyanzi '-speaking people with good
tobacco for sale. They had cicatrized their faces, and wore graduated
rings round the neck. Here the houses are built in streets at right
angles to the riverside."
" October 1 5 '86. We reached the head of Lake Leopold, and had
quite a hostile reception at the hands of the people, who assembled to
the number of some five hundred on the beach. Twenty or thirty
waded out into the water up to their waists, threatening us with spears
and bows and arrows. They were encouraged meantime by the war
dances of their comrades on shore. We stayed some ten minutes, and
then put the steamer round and steamed off without having come
within bowshot. The steam whistle produced quite a panic, and drove
1 In a later passage he says : '■ The highlands of the Mfini are splendidly promising.
They seem to me to be among the finest positions I have seen in the whole central
Congo basin."
1 68 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
the warriors all on shore. The next town we came to was friendly, as
indeed were all the people except in the first case. We were able to
purchase supplies and replenish our stores of fuel with the abundance
of dried wood which we found in their plantations. The fishing
operations which are carried on involve an immense amount of labour.
The upper bight of the lake is for some square miles just a forest of fish-
ing stakes, through which we had had great difficulty in making our
way. The water is very low in many places. We had only three or four
feet for miles at a stretch. The marks on the trees indicate the flood-
level at about eight feet above the present.
" The upper end of Lake Leopold is bounded by much lower shores
than the south end, where the wooded hills run from fifty to two hundred
feet, meeting the water's edge here and there with bold descents. The
soil on top of the
; , , ., . ,- -." •„ ': ferruginous rock
' -."•. V-'--' '.-. ' • '•■-.'.' '•■>";■. ; ' ■•',-..'. :*.\W V'-."V-' seems to be very
..WW'!-.''*'' ■'-- * ~-"i\VVW rich black loam.
The points that
stretch out into the
water are very acute,
with immense de-
tached boulders, and
long sandy beaches
between these rocky
points. The coast
is curiously scal-
loped. I do not
think there is any
direct communica-
tion between this
67. THE "UPSIDE-DOWN FISH "
Kittropius laticeps, from Lake Leopold II, where it sometimes grows to a
length of six feet. It is very good to eat.
lake and Lake
Ntomba. 1 The people on the Mfini River have plenty of brass (rods),
while the lake people have little or none. The strangest thing about
these folk is their speaking ' Kiyanzi ' or a dialect somewhat similar.
Many of the words I recognized as absolutely the same. They use on
the open waters of the lake large ' sea-going ' canoes on account of the
rough seas.
"The water of Lake Leopold II is very dirty, and strongly im-
pregnated with iron. Those who bathe in it have to carefully wash
afterwards to get rid of the rust.
" I make the latitude fully ten miles south of' Stanley's position by
two double observations. Can Stanley have missed a day in his
reckoning? I make the lake quite as big as he does. . . ."
On the 16th of October 1886 the Peace started at six in the
morning, but was unable to tow her boat alongside on account
of the heavy rollers on the open water of the lake, and the
whale-boat therefore had to be towed astern with a long rope.
The waves broke over the Peace and threatened to swamp her.
1 This was afterwards proved hy Bentley's journey round Ntomba in 1887.
THE RIVERS OF CENTRAL CONGOLAND 169
Although there were so many water-birds on the Mfini, very
few were to be seen on Lake Leopold. Crocodiles also were
less numerous. On the other hand, a good many buffaloes
came down to drink where the shore was low, and hippos were
abundant on these rare grassy fiats. The attacks of the
hippopotami on this voyage were most audacious. They
rushed at the Peace again and again, rose out of the water and
seized the bows in their huge mouths, wrenching off some of
the planking round the gunwale. Grenfell was repeatedly wet
through with the splashing made by these monsters. Those
that were killed furnished meat for the natives on board. As
on the Mfini River,
so on the shores of
Lake Leopold II,
where the land was
low and grassy
the natives reared
stacks of cut grass
or reeds for burn-
ing in order to
make salt from the
potash.
Grenfell pre-
dicts that the navi-
gation of the lake
will be rendered
dangerous in the
seasons of high
water by several reefs of rocks. As there is no visible current,
the presence of these will be concealed when they are covered
with water.
After leaving Lake Leopold some attention was given to the
important River Lukenye. Where the Lukenye joins the Mfini
and the waters of Lake Leopold it is 250 yards wide, and its
current flows at the rate of 172 feet a minute. The Lukenye
rises far away to the east, only a few miles from the course of
the Lomami. It flows nearly parallel with the lower course of
the Sankuru-Kasai, and the country lying between it and this
other great tributary of the Congo is said to be some of the
finest land in the Congo Free State.
By the 21st of October 1886 Grenfell was back again at
Arthington, and for some days afterwards had to nurse missionary
colleagues whose fevers gave them temperatures of 105 .
In December of that year he went on the sixth exploring
68. HEAD OF HIPPOPOTAMUS SHOT BY GRENFELL
170 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
voyage of the Peace with Holman Bentley as a companion.
They explored the Kwango River from the Kasai confluence
to the Kingunji Rapids with results that are embodied in the
earlier part of this chapter.
Except for this excursion the close of 1886 was spent in
working out his observations and completing his great chart of
the river from Leopoldville on Stanley Pool to the Stanley Falls,
together with his explorations of the upper affluents. His chart
was made on the scale of -^ w of an inch= 100 yards (practically
a mile to the inch), and the sheets of the chart dealing with the
main Congo when placed in order one after the other measured
a length of 125 feet. ]
Much of Grenfell's preliminary geographical work had been
published by the Royal Geographical Society in October 1886,
accompanied by his notes. In 1887 they published his chart of
the Congo basin, and very appropriately awarded to him in that
year the Founder's Medal.
1 Holman Bentley thus describes Grenfell's procedure when surveying from
the deck of the Peace: "Hour after hour on those long journeys Grenfell stood
behind his prismatic compass, taking the bearings of point after point as they
appeared ; estimating from time to time the speed of the steamer, and correcting all
the work as occasion offered by astronomical observations. When the steamer was
running his food had to be brought to him, unless in some straighter run towards a
distant point he could slip away for a few minutes."
Grenfell's diaries constantly refer to his night vigils for taking observations of the
stars from the satellites of Jupiter.
CHAPTER X
TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY
G REN FELL'S fourth term of residence on the Congo
had lasted exactly four years, from 1883 to 1887.
1883 had been spent in founding mission stations and
in conveying the Peace in sections to Stanley Pool and putting
her together. 1884, 1885, and 1886 had been occupied mainly
in the great explorations, but also in founding mission stations
of a temporary or permanent nature at the Babangi towns of
the Upper Congo. In February 1887 Grenfell reached England
for a brief holiday, regaining the Congo in September.
Whilst he was resting from his labours in the first half of
that year, Stanley arrived on the Lower Congo to conduct the
Emin Pasha relief expedition.
In order to reach the mouth of the Aruwimi as quickly as
possible, he decided in a somewhat masterful way to impress
every steamer on the Upper Congo, amongst them the Peace.
Stanley did not at first realize that the Peace was necessary, for
the maintenance of the mission stations already established far
away from Stanley Pool. However, his somewhat peremptory
language soon gave way to a milder attitude. He promised
not to detain the steamer longer than absolutely necessary, and
engaged that she should not be associated with warlike opera-
tions which he might find it necessary to- undertake. 1
Amongst other things Stanley attempted to solve for a time
the Arab difficulty by establishing Tipu-Tipu as Governor for
the Congo Independent State at the Stanley Falls, as related in
the last chapter. Deane, the Englishman referred to so often
by Grenfell in his diaries, had been attacked by the Arabs, and
after a desperate but vain defence of his stockade had sought
safety in flight. He had managed to get away in a canoe after
running the gauntlet of the Arab fire from the banks.
The borrowing of the Peace on the part of Stanley put a
1 " Stanley kept his promise and there was nothing whatever to prejudice the
Peaces character." (Bentley.)
171
172 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
stop for some time to further Congo exploration by the Baptist
missionaries, though Bentley did useful geographical work over-
land to the east and south of Stanley Pool.
Grenfell had noted previously the following information as
to the angle of country between the lower Kwango and the
Congo, especially the lands lying due east of Stanley Pool ; his
information being partly derived from a German explorer Dr.
Buttner, who travelled over this region in 1885. Bentley and
69. MAJOR BARTTELOT AND A SECTION OF THE EMIN PASHA RELIEF EXPEDITION
OFF LUKOLELA, UPPER CONGO
Buttner described it as a high level tableland (1,000 to 1,500 feet
above sea-level), seamed with small valleys not too well
supplied with water. 1 Each watering-place had a village
grouped round it, and as a rule these villages and supplies of
water were about twenty miles apart. Further south, in the
valley of the Kwango, the country of the Yaka (Mayaka,
Bayaka) possessed large and prosperous towns which were
centres for the ivory trade. The natives told Buttner strange
1 Buttner stated that between San Salvador and the Kwango the land was bare
on the uplands : " characteristic red clay hills and gallery forests along the river
banks." Bentley describes the valley of the Ntsele (which enters Stanley Pool at
Kimpoko) as "about five miles wide and 1,100 feet deep," tributary streams flowing
through other gorges much narrower but nearly as profound, with the cliff-sides
clothed in black forest save where recent landslips displayed bare surfaces of gleaming
white sand.
TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY
i73
stories of a race of men in the hiils to the west who spoke from
their arm-pits. A great deal of cannibalism was said to linger
(in 1885) amongst the Bayaka. In fact, Dr. Biittner saw two
slaves killed for eating, and marvelled at their apparent in-
sensibility. They were not even bound, but submitted to
execution like dumb, senseless brutes.
In the summer of 1887, Holman Bentley accompanied by
his wife and child, with the
missionary engineer Char-
ters 1 in command of the
Peace, made a steamer jour-
ney on the Upper Congo
for the purpose of exploring
Lake Mantumba or Ntomba.
It was believed then that this
small lake, entered from the
Congo at Ilebo, communi-
cated by creek with Lake
Leopold II. If this were the
case it might be an easier
means of access to the in-
terior for the mission
steamer. 2 On the way to
Ntomba they called at the
row of Babangi towns on the
east bank of the Congo
known as Bolobo.
The Bolobo district in
1887 had become excessively
hostile towards Europeans.
The temporary station of the
Congo Free State had been
burnt to the ground, the chief
Iba'ka was dead, and when the Peace arrived in August, with
Bentley on board, she was roughly ordered away. Before
sheering off, however, an idea occurred to Bentley. Taking
advantage of the steamer's halt, his wife and nurse were giving
70. REV. W
HOLMAN BENTLEY, B.M.S.,
Author of Kongo Dictionary and Grammar.
D.D.
1 Charters afterwards became a doctor, and as a medical missionary went out to
British East Africa, where he lost his life inexplicably {vide Bentley's Pioneering on the
Congo). The present writer believes that he and his companion fell into a game pit and
were smothered ; that was the story told to him by natives, a few years after Charters's
death.
2 Bentley and all succeeding travellers down to a few years ago exaggerated the
size and importance of this little lake — a mere Congo backwater. Stanley, its dis-
coverer, called it "Mantumba." The Belgian authorities write the name "Tumba."
Bentley's " Ntomba" seems to be the usual native pronunciation.
i74 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
a bath to the Bentley baby. As if by accident, the little white
child was held up in view of the angry and excited people.
Suddenly a hush fell on the assembly of armed men, gradually
giving way to a shout of delighted surprise.
A few minutes afterwards, in response to urgent invitations
to come on shore, the Bentley baby in a dainty white dress was
being paraded through the town, nursed and dandled by
warrior after warrior till his snowy frock was reddened with
camwood dye or stained with greasy black marks from those
who had covered their bodies with oil and soot in token of
mourning. Mrs. Bentley was equally an object of interest and
admiration, as she was the first white woman that had appeared
in these regions. Up to that time the white man had been
looked upon as a sort of unnatural creature that was not bred
and born like ordinary human beings — a semi-supernatural
being without a mate. The Bentley baby practically created
the Baptist mission station of Bolobo, which has endured for
so many years, and which was to be Grenfell's principal resi-
dence from 1888 till 1906.
After stopping at Ilebo [which in those days was a group of
eight or ten towns of Babangi people, separated each from the
other by tall fences of glossy-leaved dracaenas] the mission
party steamed into Lake Ntomba. The missionaries were again
objects of distrust. They were non-human, spirits — and spirits
of evil. Already, by 1887, the white man was becoming- un-
popular on the Upper Congo. In some districts he was a
minister of justice, punishing the evil-doer. He was disliked
as a Liberal, as one who was breaking up the bad old customs.
Elsewhere the white agent or explorer was unscrupulous and
harsh, and his Swahili or Hausa soldiers abused their positions
and laid violent hands on women or food supplies. At Iyanja
Bentley was asked, " Why do you spirits always trouble us ?
You are not good. Our people die, so do our goats and fowls ;
our farms do not produce as they should, sickness and trouble
come, and you are the cause. . . . Why do you not let us
alone ? " *
1 This last phrase was used, even as early as 1883, to the author of this book
when visiting similar regions on the Upper Congo. " Let us alone : our customs may-
be bad in your eyes, but let us alone. Stop in your country as we stop in ours."
They had not grasped one underlying principle of the martyrdom of man, that our
much-suffering genus never has been let alone since it diverged from the anthropoid
ape. It has been chastened by glacial periods — or, at any rate, this has been the
agency that has shaped the industrious Asiatic |or European. The Negro and the
Australian may have escaped the trials of an Ice Age, only now to be plagued
instead by their Caucasian or Mongolian brothers, who will not, cannot let them
alone.
TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY
175
Bentley again pointed out that according to their own show-
ing spirits could not marry and have children, and proved his
flesh-and-blood kinship with them by the production of his wife
and child. It was, however, by no means conclusive to the
natives that a spirit might not mingle with humanity and pro-
create. Still, to
a great extent
their confidence
was won.
He describes
the people of
Lake Ntomba
as very different
from the Ba-
bangi of the
Congo
shore. 1
type of
Their
face resembled
the Babuma of
the south end of
Lake Leopold ;
but curiously
enough, they
wore cloth
identical with
that made in the
Kasai region,
the " pile cloth "
like buff-colour-
ed velvet, which
is made of the
fibre of the
raphia palm.
They were
armed with
bows, arrows, and spears, but had very few shields.
One feature of the eastern shore of a remarkable character
was the extraordinary abundance of gum copal. This resin
flows from a papilionaceous tree, a species of Copaifera, Trachy-
lobium or Guibourtia. It is very light, and floats readily in
water. The copal gum which drops from the trees round Lake
*,•$&&&&.
71. CLOTH OF RAISED PILE FROM NTOMBA DISTRICT
1 Lord Mountmorres, visiting the eastern shores of Ntomba in 1905, noticed the
pygmy hunters who penetrated thither from the east, and who were known as Bua
by the other tribes.
176 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Ntomba at flood time is blown by the prevailing wind to the
east shore of the lake. Here (according to Bentley) the beach
and ground are composed entirely of copal, leaves, and drift-
wood. " The sand and pebbles are all of copal. I saw nothing
else, even in the hollows."
The water of Lake Ntomba, like that of Leopold II, is
very dark rusty-red in colour. Its shores are all iron-stone,
with rocky points, scooped-out shallow bays, and a few small
islands. The lake seems to be shallow as a general rule,
and the shores are flat. One of Bentley 's objects was to
ascertain if there was water communication between Mantumba
and Lake Leopold II. He followed up for a few miles several
creeks leading towards the River Busira, but arrived at the
conclusion that except in high flood time it would be impossible
to pass from Ntomba either to the great lake in the south or to
the Ruki- Busira. As the water of Ntomba rises about ten
feet in the height of the rainy season, it may occur that at that
time of the year the two lakes nearly merge. Grenfell states
at a later date that the Ntomba water flows westward into the
main Congo.
By the autumn of 1887 Grenfell returned from his holiday
in England and had reached the new Arthington station at
Stanley Pool in January 1888. A great disaster had happened
to this station (then the Grenfells' home) in the summer of
1886. Whilst the Peace was up-river, Bateke people, burning
the grass in the dry season, had accidentally started a bush
fire near Leopoldville which destroyed all Arthington station
except two dwelling-houses, entailing the loss not only of the
mission property, but of the private effects of Grenfell and
five of his colleagues — the whole loss being estimated at
,£3,000. Already Arthington had been found to be incon-
veniently situated for navigation, as it was so close to the first
rapids of the Lower Congo. Measures had been taken a year
or so before to obtain new quarters at Nshasa, on the south
shore of Stanley Pool ; and after the fire, " old " Arthington
was abandoned and the name transferred to the mission settle-
ment at Nshasa.
Soon after Grenfell's return to the Congo in the autumn of
1887 it was decided that the headquarters of the Peace and
the river transport service in general of the Baptist Mission on
the Upper Congo should be transferred from Arthington on
Stanley Pool to Bolobo, beyond the confluence of the Kwa.
All through the years that followed the settlement of Euro-
peans at Stanley Pool in 1882 immense difficulties had to be
TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY
177
encountered in the way of food supply. The population on the
southern shores of Stanley Pool was not a very abundant one,
and the Europeans soon ate up all the available fowls, pigs,
goats, and sheep. Very often they had to live on " kwanga," a
sour, unappetizing dough made of the manioc root. Kwanga
was very often only eatable by having it toasted or fried till it
was quite burnt, in order to get rid of the gluey, sour taste.
Fish could sometimes be obtained from the native fishermen,
72. PREPARED MANIOC ROOTS (" KWANGA") AND SUGAR-CANE
(A school feast on the Upper Congo.)
but as often as not it was smoked fish. This might have been
kept for a long - time in a native hut, and be full of maggots.
There was very little game ; altogether, the region of Stanley
Pool, and especially the vicinity of Leopoldville, was not a happy
place of residence in the 'eighties. 1 Two hundred and thirty
miles of difficult and wearisome travel connected it with the base
on the lower river, which could be reached by ocean steamers.
1 The Bateke people who inhabited the country round the south-western shores
of Stanley Pool (chiefly at two great congeries of villages, Ntamo or Kintamo and
Nshasa or Kinshasa) were never well disposed towards the European. The well-
known chief of Ntamo (Leopoldville) was Ngaliema, the capricious friend of Stanley.
This individual, like Ibaka and other riverain Congo chiefs, began life as a slave to a
Bateke chief, bought for one plate ! He was astute in commerce and so enriched
himself over the ivory trade. With his wealth he bought guns and gunpowder from
the Bakongo traders and became an independent chief, at first much courted and
I. — N
§
Til
178 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Supplies brought over these two hundred and thirty miles by
boat or steamer and by porters were expensive ; moreover, the
recruitment of native porters was a matter of uncertainty, and
goods would be stranded for weeks or months at Manyanga,
midway in the cataract region. The completion of the railway
in the 'nineties of course altered these circumstances. Now,
one is surprised that the state capital of the Congo is not on
Stanley Pool, instead of at Boma — utterly out of touch with
, . . -.. .... ,. the vast central
^^l\vVVV' tA:!'Yl^V ; ' basin of the
Congo, thoucrh
in direct steam
communication
with Europe and
the rest of the
world.
Grenfell ac-
cordingly, to es-
cape the misery
of intermittent
starvation, em-
ployed the spring
of 1888 in found-
ing the new sta-
tion at Bolobo,
which was after-
wards to become his home for many years.
Whilst still residing at Arthington (Nshasa) Grenfell in his
spare moments sketched out an African romance which he
would write some day (but apparently never did).
" I have been thinking that the history of a pair of tusks would
make a very interesting topic for an African romance. The elephant
shall be killed in some pitfall or by poisoned arrows in the very
heart of Africa. There shall be a description of the happy family
life of the hunter who secured the tusks. One of these tusks will be
sold to native traders for brass collars. They take it down to the
Congo — vicissitudes of canoe voyage — tusk sometimes hidden in the
river sand — fights — blood-brotherhood — tusk bargained for, fought for,
wrangled about, traded away at Stanley Pool, then the land transport
to the European factories on the West Coast, etc. etc. Again, an Arab
73. CITHARINUS CONGICUS, A FISH MUCH EATEN BY THE
NATIVES OF STANLEY POOL AND THE UPPER CONGO
(This species, about twelveto fifteen inches long, is smoked, and becomes an
important article in native commerce). Its name, and that of the other
Cithctrini, is Loboko among the Bayanzi.
enriched by Stanley's expeditions in the Congo State. But his people cared nothing
for agriculture and hindered all the State's efforts at improving the local food supply.
After several attempts at futile risings the remnant of the South-Stanley-Pool Bateke
returned to the lands north of Stanley Pool, from which they had come. The sites of
their towns are now flourishing plantations.
TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY 179
raid, the hunter's wife is carried off to be a slave. The hunter takes the
other tusk from his store and redeems his wife from the Arab captor.
Then a description of the overland journey to Zanzibar, the slave
transport, etc. etc. As likely as not both tusks may meet in the auction
room at the London Docks." 1
During July 1888 terrible stories reached Grenfell and
other persons residing at Stanley Pool (through the return-
ing members of the Emin Pasha relief expedition, Belgian
officials and others) as to events connected with the rearguard
of Stanley's expedition at the mouth of the Aruwimi and on
the Upper Congo. The only excuse for touching on this
painful matter is the fact that these stories are recorded by
Grenfell in the summer of 1888, whereas they were not pub-
lished to the world by Stanley himself until 1891. It is
perhaps better not to rake up the memory of these doings,
though it is necessary to say that Grenfell in his private diary
records evidence taken down from eye-witnesses, and that some
of his stories or details are more sensational than what has
been made known. He himself felt the shame of these deeds
having been committed or permitted by Englishmen, and this
remembrance perhaps, amongst other considerations, should
temper our denunciations of other nationalities.
On the 31st of August 1888 Grenfell notes down a long
interview with Herbert Ward, according to whom if the
Arabs detailed by Tipu-Tipu to assist Stanley's expedition
had not behaved loyally after the death of Major Barttelot,
Jamieson and Bonny would also have been killed by the
Manyema, and nothing would have been left in personnel or
stores of the rearguard expedition. "The Arabs were a
never- wanting bodyguard day and night." On the other hand,
he states that Tipu-Tipu was asking an additional ,£20,000 for
leading a relief expedition to save Emin Pasha and Stanley,
via Nyangwe and Unyoro.
With regard to events at San Salvador since the Portuguese
had established their protectorate over the kingdom of Kongo,
Grenfell describes in his diary (1888) the well-meant attempts
of a certain bishop to establish monogamy in this region by in-
ducing the King of San Salvador to become the husband of
one wife and then to present himself for baptism. Unfor-
tunately, the wife chosen was already betrothed to another man,
1 Most of these "suggestions" are found together at one place in Grenfell's
diary, in June 12 1888. Other allusions to this crop up later on. For the reader's
convenience I have put them together.
180 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
and both parties were unwilling to forego marriage in order
that the woman might become the single spouse of the King of
Kongo. Just as the marriage was to take place the queen-
elect bolted with her lover. The forty pre-existing queens of
Kongo raised a great clamour at being disbanded. However,
inducements were offered to them to depart, to the runaway to
return, and at length the wedding took place. The new queen
£■■*-*;/■ Vi.i-A-'i'-bny'v---'--- • -'i-.'.'-^Vi. •-•...'= '''-•'". '"?■■}■■■'-.;,'■
74. HERBERT WARD AND HIS SECTION OF THE EMIN PASHA EXPEDITION ON
THE CONGO IN CANOES
had consented to break off her other engagement on the condi-
tion that she was married in a bonnet and dress of yellow silk,
in yellow shoes and stockings. The aged king was wheeled
to his wedding in a Bath chair borrowed from a European.
At a later date, however, Grenfell and Bentley write frankly
and even gratefully on the subject of the Portuguese, declaring
that they had been not only fair, but kind to the Baptist
Mission ; that they had established security on the trade routes,
and had not unduly oppressed the natives. They had done all
this, moreover, with a remarkably small show of force.
When the old King of San Salvador died in 1891, the
TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY
iSl
people were allowed to elect a successor in the person of
Mfutila, the late king's nephew. 1 Mfutila attempted to sig-
nalize his assumption of the kingly office by acts of rapine,
and amongst other things decided to lure the Portuguese
Resident into leaving the fort and coming to a council of chiefs,
at which it would be easy to assassinate him. The small garri-
son of native soldiers
could then be over- t ^""^ty^ii '" '""
come and Portuguese
rule driven out of the
country.
The Resident,
however, was a Por-
tuguese type worthy
of the old days of the
conquistadores. He
had only about ten
soldiers at his station,
but acted as though
he was master of the
situation, declined to
sfo out to meet the
chiefs (since such was
not the custom of the
representative of Por-
tugal), but would be
very happy to receive
them at his Resi-
dency, promising to
keep his soldiers in
barracks whilst they
were there. 2 The
chiefs accepted the
Resident's invitation, and came with a thousand men arme d
with guns. The Resident invited them to spread their
mats in the shade and state their case. Whilst waiting for
a spokesman, one of the men in wriggling about pressed
75. MFUTILA, THE LATE KING.OF KONGO, SUCCEEDED
HIS FATHER AT SAN SALVADOR IN 1892
1 Mfutila died in 1896, and was succeeded by the present king, Dom Henrique.
2 Bentley records of the same Resident the following anecdote. Soon after he
arrived at San Salvador, the chief of one of the large Congo towns sent him two
bullets (the ordinary declaration of war), and the message that he was going to
attack him in two days' time. The Resident replied that it would be an excellent
plan thus to try conclusions, and sent the chief two barrels of powder, inquiring at
the same time whether he had a sufficient number of guns. The warlike chief was
so disconcerted that he returned the powder, lest it should be subsequently charged
for at trade rates, and stated he had no intention of fighting.
i82 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
the trigger of his loaded gun. It went off, and the man
sitting next to him was shot through the arm. In another
minute there was a terrific cloud of clust caused by the
bolting of the chiefs and their men. When this cloud was
blown away there only remained on the scene the Resident and
the wounded man, who was handed over to the Baptist Mission
for treatment. Subsequently the Portuguese Resident induced
the chiefs and their following to reassemble, and dismissed
them after a wise discourse on the necessity in their affairs for
good government.
76. CHIEFS AND NOBLEMEN AT SAN SALVADOR, KINGDOM OK KONGO
Since that time the ancient kingdom of Kongo and the work
of the Baptist and the Catholic Missions therein has continu-
ously prospered under Portuguese rule, to the enrichment of
the natives quite as much as to the advantage of European
commerce. The testimony of Grenfell and Bentley might be
borne in mind by those who are obliged to criticize the work of
Portugal elsewhere in Africa.
Nevertheless, Grenfell wrote in his diary on April 11 1886
(when steaming up the Lulua River) : " Last night Lieut.
Wissmann gave me a terrible indictment of Portuguese rule in
(inner) Angola." This referred chiefly to the entrusting of
responsible positions and power to negro officials who abused
,j^^E^»ft»
77. A GROUP OF BAPTIST MISSIONARIES (INCLUDING MR. AND MRS. GRENFELL) AT THE LAUNCHING OF THE "GOODWILL"'
TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY 185
their positions in the Kwango district to carry on an active
slave trade with the Luba countries in order to send labourers
to the Sao Thome plantations. "The labourers never return."
" The Angolan sugar plantations are notoriously unhealthy ; of
eighty Baluba sold to one plantation only four were left three
years later." The white convicts sent as soldiers or colonists
to the Kwango region "were a disgrace to Portugal; they were
clad like natives . . . would beg for a little cloth from any
European traveller they might meet . . . and their conduct
towards the natives was often abominable."
But in 1886-7 Portugal took her duties more seriously.
Officers of distinction like Henrique de Carvalho replaced the
previously inferior type of official ; convicts were no longer
despatched to regions of the interior where their actions could
not be controlled ; and although the recruitment of labourers or
apprentices for the cacao plantations of Sao Thome still con-
tinues, it is at any rate a system directly carried on by respon-
sible government officials, and although criticizable in many
aspects, it is not so bad as the disgraceful slave trade which still
existed in Angola as late as 1885 and which kept all south-
central Congoland seething with civil war, rapine, razzias, and
revenges.
After the departure from the Congo and the Aruwimi of the
Emin Pasha relief expedition in 1889, the Arab attitude towards
the Congo Independent State became insolent and threaten-
ing. There was a Belgian "Resident" (M. de Saint Marcq)
at the Court of Tipu-Tipu [Kasongo], but he and his secretary
became at last little more than hostages for the immobility
of the State. The Commandant of Stanleyville (?Van de
Velde) 1 dared not oppose the Arabs ordering up ammunition
and guns even from the west coast, by the trading steamers
of the Dutch company. Tipu-Tipu threatened at intervals
to come down with a fleet of canoes and attack Leopold-
ville ; but early in 1890, for health or other reasons, he deemed
it prudent to retire to Zanzibar. He was succeeded by a
kind of duumvirate — his son Sefu, and an old Arab on the
Lomami named Mohara. Soon afterwards the Manyema allies
of the Arabs began to attack Belgian outposts or expeditions.
In June 1890 the representative of the Congo Free State at
1 He was supported later by the Austrian officer, Lehrmann (afterwards com-
manding the military escort of the Lunda expedition). Of him, at Stanley Falls
Grenfell writes on the 24th May 1890: "Lehrmann is really the right man in the
right place, and has created a great impression by putting one of the big Arabs in
prison."
1 86 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Stanley Pool seized the Peace by force and impressed her into
the service of the State to take part in the now threatened war
against the Arabs. One representative of the Mission was
allowed to remain on board, partly in charge of the machinery,
but the Peace was sent away from Stanley Fool to Lusambo on
the Sankuru loaded with ammunition. The enforced service
of the mission steamer was stated to have saved the political
situation in south-central Congoland, and the State was enabled
to make headway against the Arabs. But the Mission not
unnaturally resented being thus mixed up with the wars —
just or unjust — that the State conducted on its own responsi-
bility. A protest was made at Brussels ; all monetary com-
pensation for the seizing of the steamer was refused, but the
assurances of the State were accepted with good grace that no
such incident would be allowed to occur again. 1
Grenfell had been repeatedly very ill with fever during
1889 and 1890. He was, moreover, much upset at the
seizure of the steamer, and left for England at the end
of 1890 to lodge a protest, and also to make better arrange-
ments regarding upper river transport. The expansion of
the Mission, and the danger of the mission stations being
left without supplies, made the sending out of a second
steamer imperative. Consequently, during 1891 a new vessel,
the Goodwill — a larger steamer than the Peace — was con-
structed on the Thames, and was brought out by Grenfell at
the end of that year. She was launched on the Upper Congo
in December 1893. The entire work of her reconstruction
was carried out by African artisans, and by this time it had
been found possible to work not only the steamers of the
Baptist Mission but those of other agencies entirely by natives
of the Upper Congo, most of whom had received their first
training on the Peace. The well-known mission engineer,
Bungudi, the son of a chief living in the vicinity of Stanley
Pool, had resided at Chiswick for nearly a year, taking part in
the construction of the new steamer.
1 My version of this incident is not considered by Grenfell's colleagues to meet
the case. It has been pointed out to me that Grenfell had offered at this time to
make two trips to the Sankuru with ordinary stores, but that he flatly refused to have
the mission steamer employed on any war service. The State at this juncture had
two steamers of its own available, while, on the other hand, the Baptist mission
stations on thf Upper Congo were "in peril through lack of supplies." Grenfell
seems to have esented this action deeply as an abuse of local authority and an
attempt to implicate the mission in all the features of the State policy, good or bad.
CHAPTER XI
THE LUNDA EXPEDITION
THE Arab occupation of all eastern Congoland had
deflected Belgian energies between 1886 and 1890 into
the basin of the Kasai. This wonderful river system
would enable them eventually to take the Arabs in flank.
Meantime it was important not to clash with the claims of
Portugal, and therefore to establish as definitely as possible
the boundaries
between An- ;
gola and the
Congo Inde- ]
pendent State. ;\ , ■ !
It was per-
haps because
of the judicious
attitude which
Grenfell and
other Baptist
missionaries
had adopted
towards the
Portuguese in
the settlement
of Congo ques-
tions [as well
as towards
the
French,
German ex-
plorers — any-
one, in short,
who was at-
tempting to
develop the
Congo,, region
Belgian,
and
CAPTAIN GORIN RIDING AN OX ON THE LUNDA
EXPEDITION
"37
1 88 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
on right lines] that the King of the Belgians as Sovereign of the
Congo Independent State appointed George Grenfell to be his
Commissioner in 1891 for the delimitation of the boundary in the
western Congo basin between Portugal and the Congo State.
After a holiday in England during 1891, occupied with the
designs for the new steamer, Grenfell reached the Congo in
December of that year. But various delays occurred in con-
nection with the Portuguese Commissioners, and it was not
until the 10th of May 1902 that the Belgian (Congolese) section
under the civil command of Grenfell left Matadi on the Lower
Congo. He was accompanied by Captain-Commandant Gorin
and M. Froment. Strict orders had been given from Brussels
and Lisbon that the expedition was to be a pacific one, even if
attempts to ward off fighting should cause delay. The Com-
missioners were instructed that it was preferable that they
should spend a longer time over their task (collecting as much
geographical information as possible) than incur hostilities by
rushing ahead heedless of obstacles and of native suspicions.
Apparently for this reason, Grenfell's portion of the expedition,
which was to meet the Portuguese contingent on the Kwango
River, pursued a somewhat deviating course in their eastward
journey. The railway to Stanley Pool not yet being con-
structed for any distance, they marched overland from Matadi
to Lukungu. 1
After a journey to the Baptist mission station of Wathen,
near Manyanga, Grenfell returned to Lukungu, and the
expedition then marched in a south-easterly direction towards
the Portuguese frontier. In the chief's house at Mayambula,
to the south-east of Lukungu, he notices a crucifix, apparently
some centuries old, to which the native hunters go to make an
obeisance before starting out on their expeditions.
This region to the south of the Lower Congo, west of
Longitude 16°, is mountainous and picturesque — a broken
plateau which reaches to altitudes of 3,000 feet in parts. Gren-
fell's highest recorded altitude was 2,440 feet, near Luvitiku.
" The views from these heights are magnificent, and the rocky
escarpment of the plateau we are leaving is most striking.
It is quite perpendicular in many places." He notes that the
people on this plateau of beautiful scenery and abundant food
supplies have a distinct Portuguese civilization, dating from
1 In his diary Grenfell appends these notes on the petrology of the cataract
region : " Oxide of iron, hyaline quartz round about Boma. Hyaline quartz and
gneiss at Musuko. Saccharoidine iron quartz and mica schist between Matadi and
Isangila. At Isangila, flint and ferruginous micaceous schist. Argillaceous shale at
Ntombi. Limonite at Manyanga."
■■■■' ■ . . . ■. ■ . ■. . '
-,
*?j$i:i
*<^^«l.^£*iu#w*^*-- j,,^s>^>tA*>,^c-«^**fc*A>*-. *M^ye^i^J^ ; ft^ : JU^>^y i'-^i
^>«:
».Ht>«_
/:r^xr.yS-?: : .iy^x^7-< '
' if
79. FACSIMILE OF KING LEOPOLD'S COMMISSION TO THE REV. GEORGE GRENFELL
TO SERVE AS PLENIPOTENTIARY ON THE FRONTIER DELIMITATION COMMISSION
FOR THE DETERMINATION OF THE FRONTIER BETWEEN PORTUGAL AND THE
CONGO STATE
i 9 o GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
several centuries ago, and that all the leading men have a
Portuguese name in addition to their native one, and greatly
value the title of Dom.
On this journey Grenfell and his European companions
were riding donkeys, apparently quite a novelty in this as
in other parts of the Congo. The natives of course knew
enough of the white man by tradition to express little sur-
prise at anything he might do ; 1 but their dogs and fowls
80, M. FROMENT ON THE LUNDA EXPEDITION
exhibited extraordinary fear and amazement at the spectacle
of a man riding an unknown beast.
The expedition followed the valley of the little Lukungu
River on to this plateau. Still crossing the plateau of the
cataract region, on his way to the Portuguese frontier and the
Kwango River, Grenfell notes the relative rapidity with which
terrestrial changes take place in this region, partly from the
action of water both above and below ground. This causes
1 Grenfell records in his diary that when Lieutenant (afterwards Baron) Dhanis
visited the great chief Kiamvo, he came to the capital of Mwene Puto Kasongo
riding an ass ; and that the great potentate of the lower Kwango, not to be outdone,
mounted the shoulders of one of his sturdiest men and thus rode to meet Dhanis on
equal terms. But when Dhanis flung himself off his donkey Kiamvo was unable to
do the same, for the retainer clasped his chiefs legs until he was promised a pay-
ment.
THE LUNDA EXPEDITION
igi
landslides and chasms. Many a native path still exists leading
nowhere, because there has been a landslip, or a river has
changed its course, and thus undermined some promontory,
or has torn its way through an alluvial plain. The violent
rains and floods rising to thirty feet above dry-season level
might block the channel of a watercourse with trees and gravel.
Then the stream is abruptly deflected at a higher level, and
cuts its way through a new channel. The terrific heat of the
Jft^T?
8l. HAMMOCK-TRAVELLING ON THE LUNDA EXPEDITION
sun makes the rocks friable, and prepares them for the diluvial
action of the water.
This plateau region of the Lower Congo was well supplied
with domestic sheep of the West African breed. Some of the
villages Grenfell describes as being very old, judging by the
growth of their fence trees. Banza Makuta, the scene of
Grenfell and Comber's rebuffs in 1878 and 1880, was now
found to be quite won over to the European. It flew the
flag of the Congo State, and its principal chief sent a
large contingent of boys to the Baptist mission school at
Wathen.
In places where the Commissioners had to walk at this
season (early June, namely, the end of autumn), the immensely
192 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
high grass with its barbed seeds, 1 so characteristic of much of
tropical Africa outside the forest region, was most distressing.
The country as they proceeded eastwards still continued to be
hilly. Camps were often at altitudes above 2,000 feet, and
heavy mists ushered in the dry season. 2
Grenfell notices outcrops of limestone in this country be-
tween the lower Congo and the lower Kwango. Very often
the graves of important chiefs or their relations are marked by
slabs of limestone, especially round Kinsuka.
In some of the villages they traversed they met groups of
circumcised boys whose bodies were whitewashed all over. 8
The villages of this region are supplied with goat-houses raised
three feet above the ground, and strong pig-styes of heavy
adzed boards constructed to keep out leopards. The pig is
very common as a domestic animal throughout all western
Congoland, owing its introduction, however, to the Portuguese
in the sixteenth century. 4
As the expedition marched away from this plateau region
towards the Kwango, many conflicting rumours reached it as
to the attitude of the natives under the rule of the great chief
Kiamvo, otherwise known as Mwene Puto Kasongo.
When Grenfell and other Baptist missionaries had estab-
lished the navigability of the Kwango from its junction with
the Kasai as far as the rapids of Kingunji, this information,
coupled with that collected by Von Mechow, led the Govern-
1 Grenfell appends this list of grasses, in which he attempts to indicate by
descriptive names the most prominent kinds : " Fretsaw, Big Oat, Small Oat Grass,
Blue Grass, Feather Grass, Big Bermuda Grass, Tuft-head, Chain-stitch, Flowering
Grass, Brown-tufted Grass, White-tufted, Small Flowering Grass, grass with a
speckled husk."
2 This mist — the cachimbo of the Portuguese — makes travelling very disagree-
able in regions of long grass. The traveller passing through this herbage is wet to
the skin in a very short time, as the grass is loaded with moisture deposited by the
mist. Grenfell makes a note to the effect that in the dry season on this account he
never starts till about half-past seven in the morning, to give the sun, which rises at
six, time to dry up the excessive moisture ; whereas in the rainy season he starts
soon after five, as the sun rising in an unclouded sky (it very seldom rains in the
morning) dries up what little moisture remains from overnight.
3 Grenfell notes that the circumcision houses, that is to say, huts or dwellings in
which these youths live apart during their time of initiation, are marked with an
emblem apparently phallic in origin.
4 The pig is not an inherently domestic animal amongst negroes, as is the case
with the dog, the goat, sheep, ox, or even fowl. Almost all races possess a word for
pig, but it is one originally applied to the wild bush pigs (Po/amocharus), which
indeed in North Central and North-Western Africa has occasionally been domesti-
cated by the negro. A wild boar of the true Sus type, related to the wild boar
of Europe and of India, exists in tropical Africa in the north-eastern Nile region and
perhaps in Kordofan ; it has even been reported as occurring north of the central
Niger ; but this animal has never been domesticated by the Hamitic or Negroid
peoples. The domestic pig only exists (away from the coast regions) in tropical
Africa, in the southern basin of the Congo.
THE LUNDA EXPEDITION 193
ment of the Congo to make a bold bid for the possession of the
Kwango basin. They had accordingly sent various Belgian
officers, especially the celebrated Dhanis, to open up relations
with Kiamvo and to establish a garrison at Popokabaka in the
Yaka country, close to the Kwango banks, and on the edge of
the plateau region.
Kiamvo or the Mwene Puto Kasongo was apparently one
of those rulers of Lunda origin that have played such a con-
spicuous part in the negro history of the southern basin of the
82. THE KWANGO RIVER SEEN FROM THE FORT OF POPOKABAKA
Congo. The most celebrated potentate of this type was the
MwataYanvo 1 of Musumba, about midway between the Atlantic
coast and Tanganyika [a little south of 8° S. Lat.], in the central
Lunda country. ^ The Lunda people seem to have had some
community of origin with the Lua or Luba, whose range extends
between Tanganyika and the Kasai, south of the 6th parallel of
S. Lat. This Luba- Lunda group of Bantu peoples must have
reached their first home on the south-west coast of Tanganyika
(Lukuga-Marungu) from the north, by travelling along the
western shore of the lake. Then they extended in time across
the Congo basin south of the dense forest region.
1 The correct rendering according to Carvalho is Muata Ya nvua.
I, — O
194 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Their rise into prominence may have been contemporaneous
with the European Renaissance — say between the twelfth and
the fifteenth centuries : a period during which there were
notable Bantu migrations and foundings of states in South
Central Africa. First the Bakuba, then the Baluba, and later
the Alunda arose as conquering and ruling castes through skill
in weapon-making, hunting, and warfare. An individual here
and there, probably of Hima (Gala) descent, would emerge
from the crowd and by dint of courage, resource, inventive-
ness, or the obtaining of better weapons, become a mighty
hunter, and thus supply his people with food and adornments.
Round him a community would group itself, attracting other
communities till a kingdom or empire was founded. It was
thus that the kingdoms of Uganda and Unyoro, of Kongo
and of the Luba, Lunda, Kioko, and other Bantu countries
came into existence. No doubt this commencement of Bantu
state-building was a far-off echo of the Arab invasions of
North Central Africa and even of the European Renaissance.
These movements, with their introduction of a higher civiliza-
tion and superior weapons, affected the Hamites and Nilotic
negroes, who in turn reacted on the Bantu of the lake regions.
According to the researches of Torday, Carvalho, and others
a Luba prince seems to have infused the divine fire into the
Lunda or Bungo people [the word Lunda, it may be re-
marked, means " brother, friend, comrade " in the southern
Luba dialects]. A Lunda adventurer settled about three hun-
dred years ago on the Kangombe plateau in S. E. Angola,
and from out of the Makosa tribe formed the celebrated raiding
tribe, Kioko or Chibokwe.
The Mwata Yanvo, who until the foundation of the Congo
Free State and the division of spheres of influence between it
and Portugal was practically the suzerain over all the Lunda
and many of the Luba peoples, is the fourteenth in descent from
the traditional founder of the dynasty in the seventeenth cen-
tury. At one time the influence of this monarchy stretched as
far to the south-east as the lands of the Kazembe, east of Lake
Mweru, 1 and as far to the west as the Kwango River and the
boundaries of Angola.
About a hundred years ago, a Lunda adventurer at the
1 The Kazembe, indeed, was originally a viceroy of the Mwata Yanvo's appoint-
ment. There are still Lunda people living in the Lake Mweru region. It is probable,
indeed, that before the coming of the Portuguese in the fifteenth century a wave of
Lunda-Luba influence had brought about the creation of the kingdom of Kongo, as
it had created the Kioko people in a corner of S.E. Angola.
THE LUNDA EXPEDITION
*95
head of a trading or hunting caravan established himself
amongst the Bayaka on the Kwango River. Previous to this
event, a great trading race — the Imbangala — had been formed
in the valley of the middle Kwango by a mixture of Lunda
influence with less civilized people — probably the cannibal and
savage " Jaggas " of Portuguese history.
The descendant of the Lunda chief who thus established a
"sort of monarchy amongst the Bayaka with its title of " Mwene
Puto Kasongo " (Kasongo, the lord of the Portuguese *) was
I8S3II8I:
83. THE KIAMVO, MWENE PUTO KASONGO (CENTRE FIGURE)
From a photograph taken by Pere Butage in igo6.
known as Kiamvo or-Kiamfu. In the early 'nineties of the last
century this chieftain was a source of great anxiety to the
Congo Free State. A Congo garrison had been established on
the verge of his territory at Popokabaka, and thither Grenfell's
expedition was bound.
After leaving Ntumba Mani rumours began to reach the
expedition that the Kiamvo might prove unfriendly.
In 1889 the Congo State had commenced to open up
relations with the Kiamvo of the Bayaka on the Kwango,
1 Kasongo originally meant "blacksmith," and means that still in the Luba
speech.
1 96 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
and had despatched an expedition under Captain Lehrmann. 1
When he neared the Kiamvo's headquarters at " Mwene Puto
Kasongo " he was sick, and was travelling in a hammock. At
the sight of a hostile force on the road in front of them, he
descended and advanced to meet them with only a walking-
stick. A native threw at him a burning brand, which he
managed to dodge. Another
rushed at him with a knife, but
by this time Lehrmann's " boys "
had come up with a shot-gun.
Lehrmann escaped being stabbed
by shooting his opponent full in
the chest. He soon had his four-
teen Zanzibaris round him, and
the discharge of their guns killed
thirty of the natives. The chief
of the village received a revolver-
shot which shattered his right
knee. After the fight was over
the village chief came to Lehr-
mann for medical treatment, which
was accorded to all the wounded.
After that the chief became a firm
friend of Lehrmann, and was of
some assistance to Grenfell.
Finding the Kiamvo so decidedly
hostile, Lehrmann retreated to
Stanley Pool.
In 1890, Lieutenant (after-
wards Baron) Dhanis was sent up
to deal with the Kiamvo. He
moved with such rapidity from
village to village that he discon-
certed all attempts at opposing
his progress. He finally faced the Kiamvo with the offer of a
large present of trade goods or a military attack. The Kiamvo
sullenly chose the present, and the Belgians were allowed to build
at Popokabaka, near the east bank of the Kwango. Here several
Belgian officers with a small Zanzibari garrison had been with
difficulty holding their own for the last two years, the Bayaka
constantly attacking them with or without Kiamvo's orders.
1 Herr Drag Lehrmann is a Croat from near Laibach, in Austria. He was one
of the most distinguished officers of the Congo Free State between 1882 and 1896:
much liked and trusted by the natives.
CAPTAIN DRAG LEHRMANN
THE LUNDA EXPEDITION 197
The Kiamvo (who at the time of writing — some fifteen
years later — is a state prisoner at Leopoldville) was described
by Grenfell as " capricious and cruel, taking life for the slightest
offence, or for no offence at all, and keeping up a terrorism by
which he rules. He will summon a chief (whom he thinks is
waxing too powerful) to his presence with some flattering
message, and then strike off his head." 1 As to the white men
installed at his town with a garrison of sixty or seventy
soldiers, they had a very bad time of it. The two Belgian
officers — Dunart and Vollont — had long beards, and these
when the Kiamvo lost his temper with them he would attempt
to pull out. They were frequently threatened with death when
coming to discuss apparently friendly matters. He would
alternate this treatment with buffoonery and presents of palm
wine.
At last the position of these Belgian officers at the Kiamvo's
capital (Mwene Puto Kasongo) became untenable. All com-
munications had been cut off, they were threatened with star-
vation ; their messengers and porters were killed, also such of
the small garrison as exposed themselves outside the defences
hastily thrown up. The officers resolved therefore to make a
desperate sortie. They suddenly burst out of their own stock-
aded settlement on the rest of the town, which was divided into
different quarters by strong barricades. In their desperation
they captured these one after the other and left some two
hundred of the enemy killed and the greater part of the town
in flames. The attacking- force under the three Belgian officers
consisted of scarcely more than sixty men, and they used 18,000
cartridges in this attempt to break out of Mwene Puto Kasongo.
From here they marched northwards to the Belgian fort of
1 Dr. Biittner, a German explorer of south-west Congoland, visited the Kiamvo
and his Court in 1885. On his subsequent journey to Stanley Pool he gave Grenfell
the following account of his experiences. His capital on the Nganga River, near
the Kwango, was a large place, containing many thousands of people. The Kiamvo
kept up great state, and would not see Biittner for two days. He was very cruel, and
killed many people on accusations of sorcery, chiefly by subjecting them to the
poison ordeal (an infusion of the Erythrophlceum bark). The hillsides outside the
town running steeply down to the river were simply strewn with human remains, and
Biittner's boys brought home several skulls. Another expedition that had visited
Kiamvo's brought away a harvest of upper and lower jaws. Biittner's specimens
were generally lacking the lower jaw, and it seemed impossible thus to get complete
skulls, the fact being that the victims of Kiamvo's cruelty were thrown out to rot in
the sun, and were generally eaten by the pigs, with which the town swarmed. The
pigs after their repast scattered the bones right and left. Dr. Biittner was rather
disgusted at receiving one of these pigs as a present from Kiamvo. Upon his
declining to eat pork, Kiamvo killed one of his dozen cows and presented it to him.
Only Kiamvo himself was allowed to keep cattle, and he had a small herd of not
more than twelve. The domestic fowls of the country were a relatively large
breed.
i 9 8 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Popokabaka. Before reaching this place they were attacked
by the Kiamvo's forces. One of the white officers was wounded,
and many of the Zanzibaris were killed, but the remnant
reached Popokabaka, and enabled that place to defend itself
against the Kiamvo's attacks.
An attempt was then made to evacuate Popokabaka
and retreat westwards, but the pioneering force was re-
pelled by the Kiamvo's men, and at last their only course
■,. % jj f -* .• $ >- f d ,f f,. f
85. KWANGO RIVKR FROM BEACH NEAR POPOKABAKA
was to remain at Popokabaka in a half-famished condition
until reinforcements connected with Grenfell's expedition
reached them.
Hearing of this expedition, Kiamvo had reconsidered his
attitude, and made overtures for peace. About this time he
uttered one of those cryptic sayings so characteristic of the
negro, the interpretation of which is not easy. " The cater-
pillar fell into the water, and his hairs came out." This was
interpreted by Grenfell to mean either " I have fallen into
trouble and my people have left me," or " I have no
longer means with which to defend myself" (the hairs
being the weapons of the caterpillar). The defence of
THE LUNDA EXPEDITION
199
Popokabaka and the whole situation were becoming much
easier owing to the possibility of direct steamer communica-
tion between Stanley Pool and the Kingunji Rapids on the
Kwango.
Grenfell reached Popokabaka on the 4th of October 1892.
The place was and remained for some time in a state of
quasi-famine. Owing to the orders of the Kiamvo, the
surrounding country was completely deserted by the inhabi-
tants, who would make no market and bring no food for
sale. The garrison lived mainly on the manioc roots which
J: "^^#!^^
86. GRENFELL'S TENT ON LUNDA EXPEDITION
they dug up from the native plantations in the vicinity. A
little fish was obtained from the river. Supplies of European
provisions, however, began to come in by the overland route
from Matadi.
The expedition having been brought up to sufficient military
strength — about four hundred men all told — the military section
started off under the command of Captain Lehrmann, and
forced its way to Kasongo, the headquarters of Kiamvo. Many
a message had been sent on in advance explicitly warning
Kiamvo against the consequences of pushing matters to an
extremity. The expedition, he was told, was a peaceful one
unless war was forced upon it. Fortunately Kiamvo decided
to accept these overtures. He allowed the expedition to build
200 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
a new station close to the banks of the Kwango on the out-
skirts of his chief town, Kasongo Lunda. 1
Grenfell and his wife left Popokabaka on November 7
1892 and joined the main expedition at Kasongo Lunda on
November 16, having been very ill and weak on this journey,
mainly performed by boats up the Kwango.
" Kasongo Lunda " (he writes) " is 430 feet above the level of the
river, and is reached by a road which is especially hilly during the first
half. The path then strikes across a plateau, which has an altitude of
about 1,700 feet above sea-level, and which is covered with forest and a
dense undergrowth of pineapples. A steep descent of the path brings
one to the Nganga stream, beyond which is an equally steep ascent
leading up to the Kiamvo's new town, which is about a mile south of
the old one abandoned in April 1892 after the battle with the State
forces. The new town counts some nine hundred houses — everything
has the appearance of being done in a hurry. . . . The State station,
instead of being half a mile away, as formerly, is well within a hundred
yards of the nearest house, and occupies a fine commanding position.
. . . M. Lehrmann has made wonderful progress in the three weeks
since he left Popo, having put up many good temporary buildings and
got the posts for a clay-walled house. The camp of the four hundred
people presents a motley group of tents, huts, and shelters of every
conceivable shape and kind ; but our departure in a day or two will
allow the station settling down to a normal condition with seventy-five
soldiers respectively quartered in three very comfortable barracks.
" 17th November 1892. I am better this morning, and it is arranged
for us to pay a visit to Mwene Puto Kasongo (the Kiamvo) at about
9 a.m. Mrs. Grenfell and myself, Captain-Commandant Gorin, and M.
Froment therefore make our way towards his 'boma,' 2 taking chairs to
sit on as well as umbrellas, for it threatens to rain. At about thirty
yards from the entrance to the royal enclosure surrounding the Kiamvo's
house we are halted by a military guard, and seat ourselves under the
eaves of a friendly roof. The Kiamvo's guard then informs him of our
arrival, and an attendant brings forth a folding-chair which had been
given to the king by M. Lehrmann ; another brings a few fathoms of red
cloth to drape the chair. Two or three minutes, and a guard of some
two hundred armed men are regularly lined on each side of the path
from the doorway of the 'lumbu' to the place where we are sitting.
Shortly afterwards the Kiamvo came forth, announced by his flute-
player, and attended by a personal retinue of a dozen men and two
players on big ' mbitis.' He seated himself in the centre of a semi-
1 This name revealed by Grenfell, which is ordinarily given to this historic site,
shows the Lunda origin of the Kiamvo's monarchy. This station must have been
founded about a hundred "years ago, partly for the purpose of trading with the
Portuguese on the Kwango. Mwene Puto, as already stated, means the lord or
master of the Portuguese (Puto), i.e. the European, trade. Kasongo was the title,
and Lunda a reference to the Lunda origin of the adventurer who made this his
headquarters and was the ancestor of the Kiamvo.
2 Boma is a Zanzibari word much used on the Congo and elsewhere, meaning a
stockade.
THE LUNDA EXPEDITION
20 1
circle formed by his soldiers. Shortly afterwards, Mwene Huta (Lord
of the Guns) approached his brother, the Kiamvo, and made a respect-
ful obeisance by drawing his right hand across his breast and describing
a graceful sweep with his left hand. We did not waste much time in
preliminaries, but we scarcely entered upon our talk before a smart
shower began to fall. One of" our umbrellas covered the Kiamvo, and
with the help of another we sat it out. I spoke of my wish to visit
the Kiamvo some time ago and of being hindered by the war. Now
that peace had been declared I was very glad to be able to come, and
hoped peace would never again be broken. I spoke of my coming to
Africa to tell the people about God, whose name they knew, and who
mm
wlillllP
fflm
87. A METALLOPHONE FROM THE KONGO-KWANGO REGION, CALLED MBITI
BY THE NATIVES
had made Himself known to us, and had sent us to tell His children
everywhere of His fatherhood and of the work of reconciliation that
had been accomplished for them."
[Then followed a discussion on Christian theology.] " The
Gospel, I fear, passed over their heads as something very good
for white men, but of very little practical concern to them-
selves." The Kiamvo took a great interest in the Ten Com-
mandments, as did his people who were listening, but rather of
the self-congratulatory kind ; for the Kiamvo boasted that as a
race they never stole nor committed adultery, while such of his
attendants as were bold enough expressed an emphatic approval
of the law "Thou shalt not kill."
" From the personal appearance of the Kiamvo, I judge he is a
man capable of all the cruelty and despotism with which he is credited.
ao2 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
He is about forty-five, with a few grey hairs showing in his beard and
head. His brother may be a couple of years younger, but is a man of
comparatively pleasing countenance — very fat, yet very energetic. As
master of the forces, his energy is manifest in his well-disciplined
soldiers, who are really a very fine body of men."
" In the afternoon Kiamvo gave orders for a dance, and in honour
of my wife's presence he himself danced the madiumba, accompanied
by the marimba. Previously, the dance was signalized by the killing of
one or more slaves by the Kiamvo himself. In deference to the new
regime (which prevents his taking the life of his slaves), the Kiamvo
tried to dance wielding a stick instead of the regular mpoko (a sort of
Roman sword about two feet in length). A very short trial of the stick
sufficed, for he relinquished it to call for the mpoko, which was carried
by one of his officers. The change was the cause of some small trepi-
dation to several amongst the onlookers, who feared that a touch of the
sword might indicate them for the executioner. They were greatly
relieved when the mpoko found a resting-place on the ground, instead
of on some one's shoulder, which would have been the fatal sign."
" The Kiamvo's wives — more than fifty of them — were very enthu-
siastic in cheering their lord and master. Having neither caps nor
bonnets wherewith to let off the exuberance of their feelings, they
pulled up grass and threw it in the air.
" This was the first dance since the advent of the new regime, and a
settlement of the difficulty which had been hanging over the country
for months. Everybody seems greatly relieved, and it is to be hoped
that better times are in store. It is very plain that Kiamvo's policy has
been to surround himself with a comparatively overwhelming force and
to keep his subjects in perpetual awe. He has opposed their gathering
together in communities larger than villages of twenty to fifty houses.
Yet the country is fertile and capable of supplying a large population,
and it is only the repressive rule of the Kiamvo that makes him the
ruler of a country of small and scattered villages. I have sometimes
doubted whether the rule of a despot was not to be preferred before
the anarchy of a series of independent head-men ; but from what I see
here the doubt is quite dispelled. It is better far for Africa that each
village should be a kingdom in itself and fight and struggle for its own
existence, than that it should come under the rule of an autocrat at a
distance who can only maintain his authority by fear and by the power
of imposing cruelties. A wise autocrat acting for the good of his
people does not seem to exist in Africa. In fact, the present condition
of things seems altogether incompatible with a state that is not held
together by mere cruel force. The more or less patriarchal rule that
obtains in the distressingly anarchical districts governed by indepen-
dent head-men, notwithstanding the lack of protection for life and
property, is after all better for the people ; for a chief's slaves are his
defenders, and certain rights have to be accorded to them, or they will
run away to neighbouring head-men, who are often not slow to entice
them. Poor Africa! It is indeed time that civilization stepped in to
heal her many woes. The remedies here and there are very drastic, as
THE LUNDA EXPEDITION
203
bad as blue-stone and other caustics at times, but a thousand times
better than to let the old sore go on festering. There come, it is true,
the new sores of civilization — drink and syphilis and lax morality !
Poor Africa ! ' n
Before leaving, the Kiamvo placed in the charge of Mr. and
Mrs. Grenfell a little boy and girl, " Luvusu and Nsumba," so
that they might remain with them for a year or two and be
taught in the white man's school. They could then return to
Kiamvo's town and serve as interpreters.
Resuming his journey up the Kwango, Grenfell noticed that
. IN THE BERTHON BOAT ON THE KWANGO RIVER, LUNDA EXPEDITION
the hills on the west were much higher and more broken than
those on the east. As the expedition journeyed southwards,
however, the hills grew lower, and the river wider, passing
through a country of rolling grass and low scrub. The expedi-
tion was much distressed at this time with an unusually heavy
1 Grenfell's Lunda journal teems with instances of the detestable behaviour
towards each other or towards the indigenous people of the more or less Lunda
chieftains. Here is a sample : —
"Witchcraft. 29th of January 1893. The war between Kakoba and Ngovo
arose directly out of Ngovo's having killed two of six messengers sent by Kakoba
to demand that Ngovo should drink the ordeal water and clear himself of the charge
of having bewitched and caused the death of his father that he might be made chief
in his place. It was the heads of these two men that we saw ornamenting the gate-
posts of Ngovo's lumbu."
2o 4 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
rainfall. The Portuguese side of the Kwango was better
peopled than that just taken over by the Congo Free State,
partly owing, no doubt, to the increasing power of the Portu-
guese and the consequent reluctance of the Kiamvo to raid to
the west of the Kwango. At the deserted villages along the
Kiamvo's bank they took what food they required and left trade
goods in payment to the absent owners. A good deal of hippo
meat was obtained, which supplemented the food supply.
in**-
-). FRANZ JOSEF FALLS OF THE KWANGO RIVER, DISCOVERED BY THE
AUSTRIAN EXPLORER VON MECHOW, 1880
Several other " Mwene Putos" or Lords of the Portuguese
markets are reported to exist besides the Kiamvo. Probably
the title was arrogated by any bold adventurer that could con-
trol a market-place on the Kwango. The natives south of
the Kuhu confluence with the Kwango (some of them belong-
ing to the Holo tribe) were found possessing Portuguese guns
of a very antique type, dating from the seventeenth century. 1
A little distance above the confluence of the Kuhu the
boating party encountered the Franz Josef Falls of the
Kwango, 2 which effectually stop navigation south of this point.
1 Later on he writes : " They are the most wonderful African trade guns I have
ever seen (though they seem to be made in Birmingham), with fluted stocks. I saw
one very old gun of Moorish style, with white-metal pins in the stock."
2 Discovered by von Mechow in 1880.
THE LUNDA EXPEDITION
205
North of the Franz Josef Falls the Kwango is fairly navigable
as far as the Kingunji Cataracts, and even, at the season of full
water, all the way down to the main Congo. The shore of the
river below the Franz Josef Falls is strewn with a coarse
shingle of huge pudding-stones, rounded pebbles four to six
inches in diameter. At the falls themselves there is an out-
crop of granitic rock. There is a certain change in the popula-
tion at these falls. The
Portuguese side of the
Kwango was (in 1892)
depopulated, but on the
east bank the natives be-
longed to the Batembo
section of the Baholo.
North of the Franz
Josef Falls on the east
bank, the people were
Bayaka and Balunda,
there known by the name
of Bengo. The Batembo-
Baholo wear their hair in
long plaits, eight or ten jHB
in number, each plait 131
terminating in strings of
beads which reach to the
shoulder. 1 These Baholo
were far more settled
and civilized than the
Bayaka, whom they ac-
cused of always carrying
their guns slung under
their arms, and being
"ready to fight, fight, fight and kill." It would almost seem
here as though one was in the presence of two opposing currents
of population, the Baholo having come up from the south and
south-east, and the Bayaka from the north.
1 Elsewhere Grenfell describes these Baholo as " very timid . . . the long tresses
of the men falling to the shoulder and often to their breasts make them look very
effeminate." "This race is tall and slender in shape, with regular features, straight
noses, and good facial angle. Being very quiet and agreeable in manner, they con-
trast most favourably with their Bayaka neighbours. There are no cicatrices on their
bodies. The ends of their hair plaits are sometimes rolled in thin brass plates instead
of beads, and then look very like old-fashioned bootlace tags, only the tags are as big
as a pipe-stem, and two inches long. The men are much greater dandies than the
women, though women of position are held in great respect, and in certain cases
wield considerable authority. They are great cattle keepers."
90. BAHOLO PEOPLE, UPPER KWANGO
206 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
The country contained less and less forest as the party pro-
ceeded southwards up the valley of the Kwango. Where it
was not cultivated, the grassy hills were dotted with stunted
shrubs or scrubby trees, and this vegetation evidently suffered
severely from each successive annual bush fire. There were
deep ravines exposing bright red clay, but the general aspect of
the country was that of a level plateau four hundred feet above
the Kwango that had been scored and scarred by the action of
water. The soil was sandy, and suited best the cultivation of
91. RAPIDS OF THE KWANGO
maize, though ground-nuts, castor-oil, tobacco, manioc, pump-
kins, and okros were also grown ; but the annual bush fires (in
Grenfell's opinion) were ruining the country, " impoverishing
vast areas." These fires together with the wasteful native
system of destroying the virgin forest for manioc plantations
were gradually turning the country into a semi-desert, for the
soil without the constant supply of leaf manure (from the trees)
was poor and sandy, and fit for little but the cultivation of
maize. Moreover the game, at one time abundant in this
region, was driven far away by the ravages of the bush fires.
The story that Grenfell tells in his diary of this rapid
deterioration of a land from the unchecked annual fires by
THE LUNDA EXPEDITION 207
which the natives seek to destroy the long grass and also to
kill small mammals, etc., is familiar to most African explorers
who have travelled outside the restricted area of existing virgin
forest. During the six years that the present writer spent in
the Nyasaland Protectorate the devastations of the bush fires
scarcely ranked second in his mind with those of the slave-
traders. In this respect the white man has entered negro
Africa none too soon. The negro left to his own elementary
ideas of agriculture was rapidly turning his continent into a
desert. Undoubtedly the rain supply of Africa has been
largely modified by the disafforesting of the country, and by the
gradual destruction of vegetation from the annual bush fires.
On the other hand, if the native could argue the question he
would say, " These bush fires enable us to get rid of the intoler-
able obstruction of the long grass with its barbed seeds. They
also destroy venomous snakes, and above all, poisonous
mosquitoes, while from the ashes of the burnt vegetation we
can at any rate manure the ground sufficiently for one or
two crops of food stuffs." The reply to this would be that
mosquitoes are best kept under by assiduous cultivation, and that
the presence of live-stock would afford quite sufficient manure
for fertilizing the soil.
When the expedition reached the Tungila River it was face
to face with one of those unexpected difficulties in African
travel. The Tungila looked a small stream on the map, but
owing to the heavy rains it was about as safe and as easy to
ford as the Thames would be at high tide at London Bridge.
The timid natives had hidden their canoes, and Grenfell and his
party had to construct rafts out of sticks and bundles of dried
papyrus stalks. They constructed one twelve feet long and
four feet wide. By means of this (though it only took five men
and five loads at each passage) they were able to cross the
Tungila without the help of the natives, though the latter,
seeing this, came to their assistance at the eleventh hour. Even
when the opposite shore was reached, a swamp four feet in
depth had to be traversed for nearly a mile. Then came a steep
walk uphill, and at last the Europeans were able to change
their clothes after walking in water and mud for more than six
hours, thankful when they reached dry ground to eat as break-
fast and lunch a few roasted corn-cobs. On their arrival, how-
ever, in the town on the hill (Mutala or Mukazela) they found
a friendly but dignified old chief who was the owner of a fine
herd of cattle, one of which he bestowed on the expedition in
order that they might have fresh beef. But his town was un-
208 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
bearable through the flies attracted by the cattle. Before
leaving his abode they noticed a face carved in the semicircular
board over his doorway, which Grenfell describes as a really
remarkable piece of high relief, quite suggestive of Greek art.
At the neighbouring big town of Kavina the young and
intelligent chief was much taken with a dog belonging to one
of the Belgian officers, and offered three cows or three slaves
for it. At the neighbouring- town of Kimbindu the expedition
was menaced with trouble. Some of the porters had been
stealing manioc in the fields, and the excited natives wished to
shoot the thieves. Grenfell said, " No fighting ! We will pay."
"No," replied the natives; "we will shoot the thieves."
Grenfell replied, " Here are all our soldiers : see how strong we
are. If one of our men is killed there will be war. If you
will bring your manioc we will buy it : hungry men must be
fed." The chief of the town saw the reasonableness of this
position, and this episode ended quite happily in presents from
both sides.
As a matter of fact the temper of the natives at this town
and in the surrounding districts was exacerbated by their own
scarcity of food. They had just gone through a severe famine,
during which slaves had been sold for eighty manioc roots each.
Grenfell remarks that this scarcity simply arose from the
ridiculous native laws, which imposed a long period of absten-
tion from work whilst the people were mourning the deaths of
notabilities — chiefs and relations, more especially the chief of
the big town on Portuguese territory far to the south — Kapenda
Kamulemba. This last death had resulted in a six months'
abstention from agricultural work, which had resulted in a
famine. This is one of many instances which might be quoted
to show that the negro is very far from happy when left to his
own devices.
The Portuguese section of delimitation was encountered at
Kasongo Luamba, to the south of the Tungila, on the Nguri-
Akama hill. It consisted of Senhor Sarmento (accompanied
by Mme. Sarmento), Lieutenant Sarmento, and the celebrated
African traveller and ethnologist, Henrique de Carvalho. The
Portuguese had been awaiting for three months the arrival of
Grenfell and his expedition, and had several times received the
rumour that the Congo representatives had been cut up by the
Kiamvo. The Portuguese were travelling very comfortably,
with three mules, several riding-oxen, large tents, and a
caravan of over three hundred porters and soldiers.
When the chief and people of Kasongo Luamba found that
THE LUNDA EXPEDITION
209
these two expeditions were to meet as friends, and there was
not to be war (as they had half supposed) between the Congo
I ndependent State and Portugal, with consequent ravages of their
own country, they gave vent to great demonstrations of delight,
much firing of powder from their extraordinary old guns (with
fluted stocks, and some
in Moorish style with
wh i te-metal pins
driven into the wood),
extravagant dancing to
the accompaniment of
the marimba (the xylo-
phone), which Gren-
fell here heard and saw
for the first time, " the
best African music I
have ever come
across," and state pro-
cessions of the leading
chiefs and their friends.
Some of these arrived
carrying bows and
arrows, and yet garbed
in hats, shirts, and even
black frock-coats and
trousers, dragoon hel-
mets, red sashes, and
big country cloths !
From the confluence
of the Tunsfila with
the Kwango, at the
end of December 1 892,
Grenfell journeyed east
and north-east in zig-
zags jointly with the
Portuguese expedition. As they neared the Wamba River
they came within the echoes of a fierce struggle which was
groins' on between two potentates — Kanzori and Kahungula —
92. MAJOR AND MME. SARMENTO, LUNDA
EXPEDITION
for the possession of a royal fetish
This was made of the tendons of human arms
indicating
supreme
rank.
anc
1 On his return journey Grenfell notes the issue of the struggle: "12th of
Api'il 1893. At our present camping-place we met two of Kahungula's men, who
report their chief having been killed by Kanzori. It seems that Kanzori after retiring to
the left bank of the Wamba sent messengers and a goat and plantain as a sign of
friendship to Kahungula, explaining that he had no grievance against him, but only
1. — P
2io GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Whilst these chieftains, these petty, bloodthirsty tyrants of
Lunda origin, fought and fled, the Baholo peasantry between
the Kwango and the Wamba kept as much as possible aloof
from these Wars of the Roses and devoted themselves to their
sleek herds of cattle. The waters of some of the eastern
affluents of the Kwango (such as the Lue) were saline and the
grass of the salt marshes suited the cattle particularly well.
They did not thrive below an altitude of 2,300 feet.
The mention of such an elevation shows that Grenfell's
party had, in leaving the narrow Kwango valley, mounted the
93-
THE MEMBERS OF THE LUNDA DELIMITATION COMMISSION
ALSO MME. SARMENTO AND MRS. GRENFELL
south-central African tableland. Through this plateau region
the great southern affluents of the Kasai — the Wamba,
Kwango, Kwilu, Luanje — cut their way in precipitous gorges
of varying depth, necessitating much arduous climbing up and
down the frequent water-cut ravines. 1
The plateau was thus divided up into parallel ranges of
flat-topped hills (sandstone formation chiefly 2 ) bearing sparse,
against his allies. He induced him to bring a return present and to pay a visit. All
went well : the goat and plantain were eaten. But the next morning, soon after day-
break, as Kahungula was coming out of the house, smoking his big diamba pipe, lie
received a shot in the abdomen from the gun of one of Kanzori's men, who had been
posted in hiding for the purpose. Kahungula was able to run a short distance, but
he was soon caught, and his hand and head cut off."
1 Grenfell compares several of these to the Colorado canon.
2 Often very red in colour. "The red sandhills of the Lushiko valley." (Grenfell.)
THE LUNDA EXPEDITION
211
coarse herbage and scrubby trees. But the river valleys — like
that of the Kwango (in the Sekeji district, especially) — were
rich in tall trees and handsome forest, much draped with grey-
green Usnea lichen. The water of the plateau streams was of
a clear indigo tint. The cliffs of the plateau on either side of
the Kwango were of white sand — disintegrated felspathic rock.
On the shores of the Kwango masses of white rock protruded
through the white sand — very effective in contrast with the
,'iS:
«... V *,^. § •%•-•-•
94. HILLS BORDERING WAMBA VALLEY
deep indigo tone of the clear water. Grenfell thus describes
the scenery of the Luanje River (an important affluent of the
Kasai) : —
" The hill we crossed on leaving the Luanje and proceeding west-
wards was remarkable for its short grass and absence of scrub. It was
mainly of red sand. I counted eleven distinct kinds of grass in full
seed. The barbed seeds are much fewer than in the cataract region.
A great number of acacia-like shrubs with hop-like flowers present
gorgeous masses of yellow blossom. There are a few deep red thistle-
heads and a small red star cluster on stems a foot in height. These are
the only bright tints, if we except a ragged blue flower which never
appears to be complete."
212 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
The plateau near the crossing of the Kwango was 3,600 feet
above sea-level, and would have benefited the tired Europeans
with its temperate climate, had it not been that the rainy-
season was in full force and the expedition was soused day and
night for weeks together.
Moveover, since joining forces with the Portuguese, small-
pox had attacked the porters and soldiers of the expedition.
Famine hovered about them as they travelled eastward from
the industrious settled Baholo into war-ravaged depopulated
regions long subject to Lunda and Kioko devastation. Such
>**
:«K#
•
m
Pt
W0.
fcipi
95. CROSSING KW1LU RIVER, LUNDA EXPEDITION
indigenous population as there was had become nomadic — they
would settle in a likely- spot for some months, building ram-
shackle, temporary houses and planting quick-growing crops
like manioc — then, unless they were already raided, they would
move on restlessly to another site which offered virgin soil for
planting and greater security of position. Some of this rest-
lessness was due to the rubber trade, which had been introduced
a few years before into these western Lunda countries. The
rubber (native name, Nkwezi) was derived from the roots or
underground branches of a species of Landolphia (probably
L. Thollonii). The natives were carrying on a reckless de-
struction of the rubber plant, and never for a moment considered
the advisability of replanting.
THE LUNDA EXPEDITION 215
The oil palm ceased to be a feature in western Lunda above
an altitude of 2,300 feet. Raphia palms of two kinds were
found in moist places. A species of climbing palm (Ancis-
trophyllum) was found by Grenfell in swampy localities as far
south as 8° S. Lat, and at an altitude of between two or three
thousand feet.
The roaming habits of the " Lunda-ized " natives and their
long-time possession of firearms had brought about a singular
absence of beasts and birds on this sandstone plateau. The
lion (according to Grenfell) is present in the valley of the
Kwango River, and there are a few reed-buck, bush-buck,
cephalophus, and perhaps cobus antelopes. Between the
middle Kasai and the Kwango, however, it is emphatically
not a big-game country, and, for its vertebrate fauna, a dis-
appointing part of Africa.
The Delimitation Commission penetrated as far east as the
Lushiko River, an eastern affluent of the Luanje.
Here they were stopped by the sullen opposition of a power-
ful chief, Mona Bwamba, ruling the country between the
Lushiko and the Kasai. This man was one of the northern-
most representatives of the powerful Kioko race, a warlike
people 1 that for the last half of a century has afflicted the lands of
the once united Lunda empire, especially in its western portion.
There was a rumour that the officials of the Congo State who
had been established by Baron von Nimptsch, Wissmann,
Grenfell, and others on the Lulua River (a parallel stream
flowing to the east of the main Kasai) and also on the Luebo
(between the Kasai and the Lulua) had been at war with a
Kioko chieftain to chastise him for his raids on the cowardly
but peaceable Luba people.
It was therefore (so far as one can gleam from his diaries)
found inadvisable by Grenfell to proceed further east than the
Lushiko in his delimitation. He had already lost over sixty
men out of the Congo State expedition from smallpox, hunger,
and sickness caused by the excessively heavy rains. " We are
within sixty miles of the Kasai and are beaten," he writes on
March 23 1893. On the 25th of March, owing to the almost
open hostility of the chief at the Lushiko ferry, they marched
southwards to a Kioko village called Sha Munana. Here the
Ba-kioko pestered them much by impudent thieving. One man
boldly tried to walk off with Grenfell's compass stand, but was
1 Known also as the Ba-joke, Va-kiokwe, Va-chibokwe, etc. The word was
probably a nickname, as in the Southern Luba dialect, Mbokwe, Chibokwe means
" hyaena."
216 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
3II8K
■•*&«
!«*••.
M/ ., . i*i^55*#*lC
arrested in time. If a paddle was lost out of a borrowed canoe,
if one of the Europeans' dogs snapped at a native, if a Portu-
guese or a Congo soldier resented an attempt at open plunder,
the native head-man at once raised a clamour and insisted on
extortionate ransom. One reason why the joint expedition
was so disliked was the smallpox with which their porters and
soldiers were in-
fected, and the Ba-
kioko not unnatur-
ally dreaded being
contaminated with
this plague. As the
yjl^^f «*3i|pi^fe|WF '?*$ l WF li lgfc j**J j<n'ni c.\p..-.liti...n
I ^ -0 % marched south-west
S ' ? • ■ p „ *i 4»~- ..-HB^j an d west on its re-
'§• i ' ."--'" '* "*M2B* : l?Cl turn towards the
Kwang-o, the small-
pox cases increased.
On all this jour-
ney, from the time
of meeting the Por-
tuguese, Grenfell
fllfif V{ : ■ '- :**. vlH§fir ; had been riding an
ox. The natives
between Angola
and Tanganyika
and over Portu-
guese South-West
Africa have trained
oxen for centuries
as riding - animals.
This practice was
apparently intro-
duced by the Portu-
guese four centuries
ago. It Is surprising that the same thing has not been done in
Uganda and contiguous countries, and elsewhere in tropical
Africa where oxen can exist, as they are much hardier than
horses, and far easier to feed.
But these riding-oxen, though as a rule very good-tempered,
have their prejudices. Grenfell writes on the 7th of April
1893:—
" Gigante does not like wetting his tail when he goes through a
swamp, and arches it like a cat does when confronting an unfriendly
97. HUNGRY PORTERS ON THE LUNDA EXPEDITION
RETURNING TO ANGOLA
■Hi'
Wmm
tfe'13;: :
w
yi|l;|
L "
--
\SMk . *i ?;
'y'i.'i :
r>
GRIiNFELL RIDING AN OX, LUNDA EXPEDITION
THE LUNDA EXPEDITION
219
dog. If his tail does get wet, the rider gets the benefit of it, for
Gigante dries it by a few vigorous shakes right and left. If it is only
clear water it does not much matter, but when passing through the
mud the bull's tail becomes an effective paint-brush. When I first
mounted ' Cahuca ' I was told never to wear a waterproof, because the
rustling of this garment was his pet aversion, making him frantic. I
regarded this advice sufficiently to take care that when wearing my
waterproof I made as little noise as possible, and sundry sudden starts
following an uninten-
tional rustle empha- Bh» t? "j
sized the need for € ~&>"
caution. After a
while, however, he
got used to it — in
fact, when I began to
take advantage of this
by shaking my rain-
coat to accelerate his
speed he soon lost his
fear. At first a slight
shake was more ef-
fective than a stroke
with the whip, but
now if I shake it with
both hands he does
not care a bit."
Occasionally,
however, these
oxen were seized
with fits of obsti-
nacy, and would
not cross swamps
or rivers. In such
cases the worn-out
men of the expedi-
tion were obliged
to kill them and bring them across as beef. As to the mules
of the expedition, they expected to be carried in hammocks
whenever they got stuck in the mud, and would actually
"malinger" in order to have themselves thus relieved.
After crossing the Kwilu to return westwards the expedition
had to wade through swamp after swamp, besides being per-
petually wetted through by the heavy rain. Grenfell tried
riding his ox in football breeches so that he might get off and
walk through the mud and water with bare legs, but this resulted
in his limbs being cut and scratched by the sharp-edged grass-
blades or their barbed seeds. Meantime, native wars breaking
99.,1grenfell's native attendants on THE LUNDA
EXPEDITION
220 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
out again in front of them, coupled with the terrible lack of
food in the northern part of the Lunda country, decided Gren-
fell (whose expedition was being decimated with smallpox) to
take a more southerly route and get into regions more under the
control of the Portuguese. In this way, after sending his
Congo carriers and some of the sick men northwards by the
now established route along the Kwango to Stanley Pool, he
himself started off with the Belgian and Portuguese officers for
the Kwanza River and St. Paul de Loanda, which place he
reached on the 16th of June 1893, performing part of the
journey by the new Royal African railway.
IIIK SKK'I'CH SVKVKY I')!' Ill 1-1 POR'I'l U iV KSE-OOXGO liOUNOARY, K'tV,, SIGNKD 1!Y THK THUKK COM.M I.SSIONKKS
To Jact /<,. s y i- 3l ..
CHAPTER XII
MISSIONARY VICISSITUDES
FTER returning from the Lunda expedition, Grenfell
resumed his work for the Baptist Mission on the Upper
Congo and settled once more at Bolobo.
The King of the Belgians presented him with the Royal
Order of the Lion (Commander) and gave him the insignia
A
IOI. THE GRAVE OF THE REV. F. R. ORAM, A BAPTIST MISSIONARY,
AT BOPOTO, NORTHERN CONGO
set in diamonds. The late King of Portugal marked his
appreciation of Grenfell's work and of his thoroughly friendly
relations with the Portuguese Commissioners by the bestowal
of a similar decoration.
Between his return to Bolobo in the early summer of 1893
and the year 1900 he remained at work on the Upper Congo.
222 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Thus, when he visited England in May 1900 he had not been
in Europe for nearly ten years.
From June 1893 to Ma y i?oo, he applied himself to
occasional exploration, and at intervals to surveying and
mapping the main Congo stream, as well as some of its
northern affluents ; and his researches in these directions will
be dealt with in the succeeding chapters. It might, however,
be interesting at this point to take stock of the trials, troubles,
102. REV. ALBERT WHERRETT'S GRAVE AT YAKUSU, STANLEY FALLS
joys, excitements, daily work, and touring episodes incidental
to the life of Baptist missionaries on the Congo during the
last twenty years. Similar experiences have, of course, occurred
to other propagandists.
Between 1879 and 1900 twenty-eight men missionaries and
eight women — thirty-six in all — of the B.M.S., died on the
Congo, or shortly after leaving that country. From 1 900 to 1 907
ten have died (seven men, three women). These deaths in-
clude, besides that of Grenfell, his distinguished colleague Dr.
Holman Bentley [whose death, though it occurred at Bristol
from a malady of the chest, must be ascribed to the Congo
MISSIONARY VICISSITUDES 223
climate], and another notable philologist, the Rev. W. H.
Stapleton. 1 The number of men (92) and women (59) mission-
aries who have served on the Congo from the definite com-
mencement of the Mission in 1879 down to the present day is
153. The death-roll therefore represents nearly 33 per cent.
The heaviest losses occurred between 1883 and 1887, and
were no doubt connected with the founding of new stations,
the clearing of new ground, and the heavy transport work of
steamers and boats in sections [together with other goods]
IO3. REV. T. J. COMBER AT ARTHINGTON, STANLEY POOL
past the cataracts of the Congo in the days before the railway
was built. Since 1900 there has been a marked falling-off in
the death-rate, no doubt owing to a better understanding of
African hygiene and the realization of the mosquito theory.
Now that Grenfell, Comber, Bentley, and Stapleton are dead,
the veterans of the Mission still at work on the Congo are
J. H. Weeks, with a long record of 1881 to 1907 (and no
doubt^ beyond) ; Thomas Lewis, well known for his geo-
graphical explorations of the western Congo, who began his
service at the Cameroons in 1883; G. R. R. Cameron' (1884),
' Stapleton died in England in December 1906, leaving some very remarkable
philological studies unfinished.
224 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
A. E. Scrivener (1886), John Pinnock (1887), J. A. Clark (1889),
William Forfeitt and Lawson Forfeitt (1889), and J. Whitehead
(1890) ; besides R. H. C. Graham (1886) and H. Ross Phillips
(1886), who have served chiefly in Portuguese Congo.
Other names worthy of special record (besides those already
mentioned) are Mr. J. Howell (1896), Mrs. Thomas Lewis (1883,
Cameroons), Mrs. Lawson Forfeitt (1894), Mrs. R. H. C. Graham
(1890), Mrs. William Forfeitt (1893), Mrs. Holman Bentley
(1886 : returned 1904), R. V. Glennie (1889-96), Kenred Smith
(1896), and H. Sutton Smith (1899). Several of these have
made contributions to geographical research and discovery or
to philological studies.
The Comber family may be said to have given their lives to
the Congo. First of all Thomas Comber and his wife, then Dr.
Sydney Comber and Percy Comber, the former after one year
of residence, the latter after seven, besides the wife of the
last-named, who predeceased her husband. A sister of the
Combers, Mrs. Wright- Hay, died at the Cameroons after
several years' work in that district. It is doubtful whether
any missionary, or any European for the matter of that, ever
gained the affection and confidence of recalcitrant natives so
thoroughly as Thomas and Percy Comber. Their names and
personalities will long be remembered at San Salvador, and in
the cataract region, where they mostly worked.
The majority of these deaths were from black-water fever,
or fever of the ordinary malarial type. Some, however, were
caused by dysentery. Dysentery is a disease which under or-
dinary circumstances Europeans ought to be able to avoid if
they realize the danger of drinking unboiled and unfiltered water
[though the disease seems sometimes communicable by some
other vehicle than water]. The common type of malarial fever
may be warded off to some extent by extreme precautions against
mosquitoes. Black-water fever is as yet an unsolved mystery,
as it so often occurs in regions where there are no mosquitoes
of any kind [districts of great altitude, for example], and attacks
persons who have been removed from a mosquito - haunted
country for several months : x nor are all the secrets of simple
malarial fever solved and explained, though the mosquito
theory accounts for much.
Deaths would often occur with startling suddenness. Inci-
1 Just as it may suddenly break out in England or in some other temperate
climate. The theory most in favour now is that it is due to an accumulation of
ordinary malarial bacilli in the blood, and is more often than not precipitated by
some sudden lowering of vitality, due either to a severe mental shock or a period of
intense anxiety, or to a sudden chill.
MISSIONARY VICISSITUDES
225
dents like this would happen in the 'eighties. A missionary,
J. W. Hartley, together with two English engineers, left Under-
hill on the Lower Congo in February 1884 to walk up-country
to Manyanga.
The engineers
were specially
engaged to re-
construct the
Peace. On the
road they were
overtaken by a
storm of rain.
Their bundles
of bedding were
wrapped in
indiarubber
sheets, but badly
fastened, so that
the blankets
became wet. It
was forgotten to
dry these during
the sunshine of
the next morn-
ing. All three
men, sleeping
under wet blan-
kets, developed
malarial fever
and died in two
or three days.
Donald Mac-
millan, a High-
lander of the
Hebrides,
reached Under-
bill on Decem-
ber 24 1884, and
died on March 9
1885 after two or three days of fever. Andrew Cruickshank was
a year in the country between 1884 and 1885, but died suddenly
at Wathen, in the cataract region, of black-water fever.
Alexander Cowe died at San Salvador and W. F. Cottingham
at Underhill after only a few months or weeks in the country.
1.— Q
104. REV. JOHN PINNOCK AND HIS FAMILY
Mr. Pinnock is a West Indian, and son of the Rev. J. Pinnock, a pioneer in the
Cameroons. Mr. Pinnock himself served for some years in the Cameroons.
226 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Another year of sad losses was 1887. Shindler, Darling,
Biggs, Whitley, Miss Martha Spearing, and the celebrated
Thomas Comber all died in that year.
It is to be noted that the Q-reater number of deaths occurred
in the cataract region of the Congo and in the not far distant
district of San Salvador. Much the same fact was noteworthy
in regard to the losses from fever sustained by Stanley's
expedition in founding the Congo Free State between 1879
and 1884. Stanley's station of Vivi, on a hill above the
Congo, the Livingstone Inland Mission station at Palabala (at
an altitude of between two and three thousand feet above sea-
level perhaps), the hills round about Manyanga, and on the
western side of Stanley Pool : all these regions proved to be
deadlier than the vast, flat, swampy regions of the inner Congo
basin. Somewhat similar has been the experience of Euro-
peans in Nyasaland. The unhealthiest parts of that country
have not necessarily been flat, marshy regions, but the prox-
imity of sun-heated rocks and stones, such as the promontory
of Livingstonia, and the Universities' Mission island of
Likoma.
Here is an example, culled from Bentley, of the way in
which a strong, healthy person can suddenly collapse in Africa.
A. D. Slade, a middle-aged man of fine physique, "a splendid
all-round man." He caught a chill, developed black- water
fever, and died after a short illness, having been only eight
months on the Congo.
Another frequent cause of death at stations like Underhill
on the lower river would be the fatal sea-breeze, which was
once so mistakenly styled " the doctor " on the West Coast of
Africa. The inexperienced European, after grilling during a
day of broiling heat in a region where the sun's rays are
caught as in a trap and refracted from the red rocks, so that at
four in the afternoon there may be a shade temperature of
105 ; towards evening sits gasping with delight on the
verandah as the breeze from the Atlantic comes sweeping a
hundred miles and more up the channel of the Congo, and
plays about his heated body with its delicious coolness. Before
dinner-time that man has sustained a severe chill, and unless he
has taken measures to check it and to restore the temperature
and the vitality he is certain to be seized soon afterwards by a
severe attack of fever.
Grenfell himself, in one of the rare passages dealing with
his own health, says that after nineteen years' life on the Congo
his digestion was well-nigh ruined, that he felt an old man at
MISSIONARY VICISSITUDES
227
fifty, could scarcely assimilate sometimes the simplest forms
of food, and further injured himself by drinking too much
tea.
The man who would invent a real stimulant which was not
a poison and was not followed by a dangerous reaction would
indeed be a great benefactor of the "African" (whether white
or black). Tea and coffee are perhaps the least hurtful ; but it
is often very difficult to get good coffee in Africa (strange to
say), and cocoa tends to biliousness. Alcohol in any and every
Underhill (B.M.S. Uase Station).
Londe (Swedish Mission's Base Station).
105. THE MISSION STATIONS OF NEW UNDERHILL AND LONDE ON THE LOWER CONGO,
AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CATARACT REGION, NEAR MATADI
form — no matter what may be written to the contrary — is
dangerous to the health in an African climate, always
poisonous, more or less, because the reaction from its effects is
— more or less — a temporary depression of vitality.
General health of course depends largely on good food and
good cooking, and married missionaries consequently stand the
climate far better than bachelors. Whilst they are at work in
the school or the field there is some one at home seeing to the
preparation of a wholesome meal.
Amongst the officials of the Congo Independent State and
the traders, those whose means permitted them to obtain good
food stood the climate better than others not so fortunate.
228 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Those who brought their wives with them from Europe stood
it best of all.
So far as the natives were concerned, there was no long-
continued virulent hostility to daunt the missionary in these
pioneering days. Only one was ever wounded by a native,
and that was Comber ; there were a few narrow escapes from
poisoned arrows or spears aimed by excited savages to whom
the white man appeared as an enemy. Not being given un-
duly to the pleasures of the chase, the missionaries seldom ran
the risk of being gored by buffaloes or trampled by elephants.
Their chief danger from wild animals lay in the direction of
hippopotami and crocodiles. 1
As regards the crocodiles, in the earlier days before these
reptiles had realized the potency of European firearms, mis-
sionaries cruising about Stanley Pool or the Upper Congo in
small boats or canoes were frequently objects of attack.
Bentley describes in vivid language how they would see a log
drifting towards them, aimlessly, as it seemed, and suddenly
the log would turn into an enormous crocodile rushing at the
canoe with undisguised ferocity, only to be warded off at
the very last moment by a bullet through his skull. Hippo-
potami were more dangerous than crocodiles. They charged
the boat or the canoe relentlessly, and were long in acquiring a
wholesome awe of the rifle-bullet.
The whirligig of time brought about a curious revenge on
the hippopotamus who in the early 'eighties made himself so
dangerous to river travellers. The chronic state of famine
along the south coast of Stanley Pool caused the representa-
tives of Bishop Taylor's Mission to devote their spare time to
hippo shooting. The meat was succulent and nourishing, and
besides supplying the Europeans with food, could be dried and
exchanged with natives dwelling inland for their vegetable
produce. After Bishop Taylor's Mission was dissolved and its
members joined other bodies and left the unpromising banks of
Stanley Pool, the hippo shooting was taken up by the State,
and Captain Hinde and other officers on their way to the Arab
War in 1890-3 were often required to spend their time when
halting at Stanley Pool in shooting hippos for the nourishment
of the stations.
1 It is remarkable how in all books of travel relating to Africa and the experi-
ences of all travelled " Africans," one hears next to nothing of dangers from poisonous
snakes or of deaths from that cause, though there are in the Congo region at least
seven examples of viperine and cobra snakes whose venom is fatal.
MISSIONARY VICISSITUDES
229
But missionaries and all other Europeans on the Congo
would probably reckon as trivial the risks from crocodilian
ferocity or hippopotamine malice (still more so, the one chance
in ten thousand of being killed by snake, elephant, leopard, or
buffalo), compared with the intolerable nuisance, discomfort,
and danger caused by insects in Congo life.
There are the very numerous species of blood-sucking gnat
("mosquito"), including the malaria-transmitting Anophelines.
Mosquitoes are — or were at one time — omnipresent in most
106. A HOUSE OF THE B.M.S. AT LUKOLELA, WESTERN EQUATORIAL CONGO
parts of the Congo basin below 3,000 feet, though worse in
some places than in others (Bolobo and Lukolela were extremely
bad). Their abundance is no doubt seasonal : they are less
obvious in the short dry season, and are absent on the plateaux
away from watercourses or groves. Clearing the grass and
scrub is the best method of driving them away. But they re-
main nevertheless the leading pest of Congo life {vide p. 941).
There is a tsetse fly — Glossina palpalis — the probe of which
occasions a temporary smart, but which we now know as one of
the deadliest enemies of humanity, the agent for introducing
into the human system the trypanosome which, when it reaches
the spinal marrow and the brain, causes "sleeping sickness."
2 3 o GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
bigger
with
There are the sand-flies or midges (Culicoides or Cerato-
pogon ?) — found also, it is true, in temperate regions, but par-
ticularly hard to bear in some parts of the Congo. A cloud of
these almost invisible little pests may sweep in through the
windows of a riverside bungalow, penetrate the ordinary mesh
of a mosquito-curtain, and leave the wretched sleeper tingling all
over face and arms, blotched and swollen as with some eruptive
fever. They attack one under the shade of trees in some cool
glen ; they haunt the verandah at the brief sunset hour of
pleasant relaxation.
There are also the stunted little flies (Simulium damnosum,
,, , , B ^ most appropriately
named !), much
than the midge,
short black bodies (about
one-eighth of an inch
long), that settle on the
hand and leave beads of
blood at every with-
drawal of the sharp pro-
boscis, injecting also
some venom which long
remains to irritate and
smart. 1 There are on
or near the water huge
hippo flies with green
eyes and tawny bodies
that drive through clothes and skin a veritable stiletto; other flies
which with their ovipositors deposit an egg in the wound that
grows into a grub and will only issue through its self-made
abscess ; house-flies in myriads, wherever cattle are bred — odious
with their stupid intrusiveness; jiggers or burrowing fleas; preda-
tory bloodthirsty "driver" ants, minute brown ants that want to
substitute themselves for your sugar and biscuits, large ants that
stink profoundly, small black ants intent on devouring natural-
history specimens ; cockroaches two inches long ; locusts four
inches long; 2 mason wasps which mess every prominent article
1 Grenfell mentions that the Teke name of this fly is Ehuna; pi. Bihuna.
2 The illustration on page 233 of a locust devouring a mouse [from specimens
now in the British Museum] represents one of these Congo locusts. This insect was
actually picked up by the Rev. M. H. Reid in the act of devouring a mouse. It was
brought home by the Rev. Lawson Forfeitt, and has been identified as Cyrtacanthacris
rubella [the mouse is a species of Leggada\. The locust had apparently eaten away
much of the mouse's ear. For this type of locust to eat anything but vegetable food
is very exceptional, but Mr. Forfeitt has observed that they devour spiders when they
have exhausted the herbage.
I07. A FRAMEWORK MADE BY THE NATIVES OF
THE WESTERN CONGO FOR PROTECTING THE
FACE AGAINST MOSQUITOES AND SAND-FLIES.
A LIGHT CLOTH IS PLACED OVER THE
WICKER-WORK MASK
108. LEOPARD KILLED ON UPPER CONGO BY REV. W. H. STAPLETON
(Mr. Stapleton is in left-hand comer of picture.)
MISSIONARY VICISSITUDES
233
of furniture with their clay nests containing a grub and a half-
dead spider ; grey, glistening wasps with almost deadly sting ;
beetles that bur-
row into the raf-
ters and reduce
them to dust ;
caterpillars that
produce a skin
disease by slight-
est contact with
their poisonous
hairs ; aromatic
bugs, shrieking -
locustids, pounc-
ing crickets of
hideous aspect,
and mantises with
long necks and fat
bellies which after
having unneces-
sarily flown from
the lamp on to
your neck will nip
the timid finger
advancing to dis-
lodge them.
Amongst other
discomforts in
boat or steamer
travelling on the
Congo might be a
plague of may- flies
( Ep h enter idee )
that rose out of
the water after
sunset and
covered the deck
of the vessel, es-
pecially making
for the lamps,
which would be simply coated with their dead bodies. These may-
flies if falling into soup or food gave it a nasty aromatic taste. 1
1 On the other hand, neither Grenfell nor any other traveller on the Congo
(including the present writer) seems to have observed there the minute gnat known
109. LOCUST DEVOURING A MOUSE
234 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
These were perhaps the real terrors of the animal world on
the Congo, these tiny insect pests : not the crocodile, who has
all the fascination of an antediluvian monster ; not the leopard,
buffalo, elephant, or snake, who did not interfere with you if you
did not call them to order; nor even the unwieldy, wrathful hippo,
so easy to shoot and so touchingly reminiscent of the Pliocene.
But Nature had not exhausted her thrills and dangers with
what was hostile in life-clothed-with-matter, from cannibal man
to deadly trypano-
some, and from
ptomaine germ to
Strophanthus ar-
row poison : there
were the elemental
forces to be
dreaded, suffered,
braved, evaded.
Broiling sunshine,
brino-ino - sunstroke
and paralysis ; de-
luo'ingf rain — soak-
ing, chilling, kill-
ing; tornadoes
that blew the house
down and crushed
its occupant with
uprooted trees ;
IIO. A FLASH OF LIGHTNING ON THE UPPER CONGO Hghtllillg that
stunned, burnt, or
slew outright— lightning that destroyed in an hour's combus-
tion the patient labour of many hands for many months. Even
occasionally there were hail-storms with pelting, bruising ice-
bullets, the size of pigeons' eggs. Or there came floods, which
destroyed all crops and gardens and decimated tribes of willing
listeners with famine and disease ; droughts which for nine
months made agriculture impossible and blasted the primeval
forests and the palm groves, with the breath of the Sahara in-
on Lake Nyasa as the kungu, which rises from the water in immense clouds of a
brownish tint that look like a low fog" in the distance. This fly is found abundantly
on Lake Nyasa, possibly on Tanganyika, and certainly on Lake Victoria Nyanza.
When a cloud of these kungu gnats sweep across a vessel everything is thickly coated
with millions of their little bodies, scarcely larger than a pin's head (they are made
into cakes and eaten greedily by the negroes). It would be interesting' to learn that
they have also been observed on the great waters of the Congo basin. If they are
absent, it is curious that their range should be limited to the Great Lakes on the
eastern edge of the Congo basin.
j : " ; ,SjPI mm t
ii|!iaf||M||i
MISSIONARY VICISSITUDES
237
truding on a climate used for many a cycle to perpetual
moisture ; winds that under a vertical sun — and most un-
wontedly — blew chilly with the dank cold of an English
November, and so sent men and women to death's door with
pneumonia ; stillnesses, more awful than any tornado in the
dark and clammy heat of the tropical night, when some poor
fluttering invalid lay gasping for breath and fearing that the
dawn with its stirring of the air might come too late.
Some sturdy missionary (or trader or administrator) will read
this and say, "Bosh! I lived (so many) years on the Congo,
112. MISSIONARY GOING ON TOUR OF INSPECTION IN HOUSE-BOAT, UPPER CONGO
and was never scared by lightning or frightened of heat-
apoplexy." It may be so. Yet nearly every incident in this
catalogue of terrors is borrowed from the records of men like
Livingstone, Stanley, Grenfell, Bentley, and Hinde, no one of
whom would be deemed a weakling or over-impressionable.
But he would be right in maintaining that missionary life
stood at a high level of cheerfulness. The schools, the garden,
the brickyard ; the blacksmith's shop, laundry, sawpit, printing-
press, dispensary, and farm ; the church — temporary, a frail
structure of mats and grass, or the triumphant outcome of
three years' breathless toil, designed, decorated, finished by the
man who taught the native helpers how to make and bake
238 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
the bricks, how to saw and shape the timbers, forge and apply
the iron clamps, affix the tiles or bolt the corrugated iron ; the
church, in any case the shrine of indefinable hopes in most
men's hearts, and to the European exile fifty times dearer,
because its lamps and seats and reading-desks, its altar or com-
munion-table, remind him not of Africa, but of home. 1
These were the objects that arrested the missionary's
thoughts and kept him from despondency or dullness. Alter-
nating with the daily round of varied work would come episodes
of travel : a journey on foot for a hundred miles or so, or
a voyage of discovery by canoe or steamer, revealing new
people, new hopes, new scenery, new languages, new difficulties
to be met and surmounted.
There is a good deal that is prosaic about African travel,
but every now and then the diary of Grenfell reveals a purple
patch. Here is one, on a journey with his daughter 2 in 1898 : —
" By reason of the shallowness of the river it took us nearly four
hours to go from Bunga to Lokolela, but the journey was enlivened by
the sight of elephants at two points of the run. One of our men took
a running shot at the first, which did not do more than startle it. The
second lot of elephants were far enough off to feel safe, and were
leisurely putting a little greater distance between us. This being
Patty's first view of elephants at home, she wanted to see them run ; so
we blew an emphatic shriek on the steam whistle, and the way those
elephants threw up their trunks, flapped their great ears, and bounded
off was a sight to see."
Football on the sands : —
" Where there are villages there are mostly rocky reefs to be found,
and several of these being en evidence, and as another storm was
gathering, it behoved us to seek a sheltered anchorage. The storm
coming mainly from the east, we got in between two rows of islands
running north and south, and anchored on the tail end of a sandbank,
which was some three feet out of the water, and constituted a sort of
inner island, half blocking the channel. The storm that threatened
having veered off, the men were sent away in the canoe to replenish
our stock of fuel, and the boys not required for that service took the
opportunity to have a game of football. This was kept up with great
enthusiasm till it was altogether too dark to see, the boys going in for
1 The Christian religion is still so very " Caucasian" in its ideals and mental pic-
tures. Nlemvo, a noted Kongo convert and teacher, said to Grenfell, after examining
a picture of the Day of Judgment on conventional lines, " That picture lie ! No
black man there."
2 Patience, Grenfell's eldest daughter, was a young woman of charming person-
ality, who was born on the Congo, educated in England and at Brussels, and who
returned to the Congo as a teacher in 1897. She died of hasmaturic fever in 1899,
while journeying on the Peace.
113- PATIENCE GRENFELL AND HER SCHOOL CHILDREN AT YAKUSU
MISSIONARY VICISSITUDES 241
several scrimmages on their own particular lines. As no one wore
boots, the kicking was not of the full-bodied type we see at home, but
the play with the hands was particularly smart and effective. The
darkness had only fallen long enough for the camp fires on the sand to
be well alight when the storm that had veered off came on us from the
north, sweeping down the channel as though it would have blown us
out of it. But though we encountered the full force of the wind, we
lay in quiet water, protected by the sandbank. The sparks from the
fires and the sand blew on board in very appreciable quantities, the
former making quite a grand display of fireworks as they blew up from
windward. By midnight all was quiet again, and we went to bed, the
tremendous downpour of rain having dispelled any fear of damage
from the sparks."
Appreciations of scenery : —
"Bolobo, November 26 1889. Although the river has lost all the
brilliant contrast of yellow sand with the dark waters and luxuriant
foliage, yet at this season the hills are gloriously verdure-clad, and very
different from the bare brown of the low-water season. The various-
tinted leaves now show their brilliant hues to perfection, and higher up
the river, on the iron-stone land the early leaves of many trees are
golden-brown or lurid red, and in the rays of the sun suggest flaming
forests and make a scene one could never forget. The cotton trees
(bombax) that two months since threw out their bare arms like giant
skeletons far above the heads of their neighbours have shed their tiny
blossoms like pantomime snowstorms, and this hoary raiment has given
place to the glorious garb of youthful spring. It is all very beautiful,
and our hearts go forth to Him who made it.
" The water is rising rapidly over the surface of the land. It has
been one of the modifying effects in moulding the landscape, for the
water percolating through the ground and finding an exit at the foot of
the hills has caused perpendicular landslips, and in many cases has
eaten fantastic caves and ravines right into the very heart of the hills.
In some cases the result is as though a volcano had burst and blown a
section of the cone clear away ; but the water has done it all — first of
all caused the sand to slip, and afterwards has carried it away to the
rapidly flowing Congo and thence to the Atlantic. It seems impossible
that the white, perpendicular cliffs so characteristic of this region (the
western Upper Congo) can be of sand ; but there is just sufficient
aluminium in the sand to make the particles cohere so long as they
are dry."
The Congo spring time : —
"26th of December 1888 (near Bolobo). Wondrously variegated
trees, crimson tipped with gold — banks lined with some trees of vivid
green leaf, while the foliage of others is lurid masses of red, shading off
into yellow, and suggesting very vividly long lines of fire. The creepers
too are in full bloom : convolvuli of graceful shape and beautiful colour,
others being sweet-scented flowers that remind one of jasmine and honey-
suckle. The white-leaved Mussmnda, and the red-berried, ever-abounding
1. — R
242 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
"Christmas" shrub that will soon provide fruits for the birds, also
enlivened the banks. . . . Great bombax trees, in their white and fluffy,
snowy vesture (blossoms) are frequent, and their fiery-headed neigh-
bours are the more striking by reason of the contrast."
The lavish bloom of the Crinum lilies — white with streaks of
pink and green on the outer aspect of the petals — growing in a
hundred clumps in some swampy flat of thick, fine, emerald grass ;
the white or the scarlet sepals (like Pvinsettia tufts) of the various
Musscenda shrubs, gleaming in the dark forest growth overhang-
114. CRINUM LILIES OF THE UPPER CONGO
ing the Kwango River ; the trailing bushes of the Camoensia
maxima amid the gaunt boulders or limestone crags of the
Cataract region — -the flowers large, creamy-white, orange-
centred, bronze-edged round the crinkled petals, and exhaling
the most perfect scent of cloves . . . these are all pictures
called up before my mental vision by the notes of Grenfell. Or
a flight of pelicans across the blue mirror of the Kasai ; snow-
white ibises with inky plumes and inky heads and necks hunting
for frogs in the Baloi swamps among the green confervce of the
rising - river ; white herons roosting "like a snowfall," tier above
tier, on the river-fronting forest in the quiet creeks of the
northern Congo ; the flights of huge and monstrous-ugly fruit-
MISSIONARY VICISSITUDES
243
fishing
bats, in daylight, across the Lukenye River, passing with dis-
cordant cries from fruit tree to fruit tree, " the Devil's notion
of a bird " (as another traveller describes them).
The yellow-red buffaloes coming down to drink at sunset on
the sandy bays of Lake Leopold ; the bush-pigs with their
orange-chestnut hair touched up and enhanced by white or
black manes and tufts and patches, surprised on the shore as the
steamer rounds a promontory ; black and white scapulated
crows, brown kites, white and black (pink-faced)
vultures ; the tame marabou
stork that will swallow a kitten,
all but the tip of its tail, and
submit to the kitten being
dragged back alive from its
capacious crop ; the habits of
the lung-fish, which can live in
dry mud as well as in water 1 —
these are some of the pictures
seen and enjoyed by mission-
aries, not one of whom ever
recorded a dull day or a bored
feeling in his diary.
They were too busy to be
bored. The women mission-
aries had their sewing classes,
their laundries (with washer-
men as well as washerwomen),
their cooking lessons, and their
reading classes for girls. They
were sensible enough to take
up native food products and teach the children and married
women how to prepare them by better, cleaner methods,
how to cook them appetizingly. There were the schools
for babies, sharp children, hulking boys, and grown women.
And the individuality of each scholar — no sameness in
these wild natures — some were affectionate, grateful as
dogs, passionately devoted to the kind mistress ; some
were sulky and might perhaps slumber and sulk unapprecia-
tively for years until a chance incident touched and revealed
the soul.
115. CAMOENSIA MAXIMA
1 Here is one of Grenfell's many natural-history notes: "The Protopterns or
lung-fish (known at Stanley Pool as njombo) digs its hole in muddy ground, and makes
several avenues leading away from the central cavity which serve as different lines of
retreat. As the water falls it deepens its hole, but does not 'hibernate,' as is reported
of it."
244 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
" Losere sold a woman some two months ago, but kept her child,
a little girl of two years. Now that the little one has dysentery he
threatens to throw her into the river. Phi-ila, of all the girls, was
moved to beg us to ask for the little child. In five minutes the matter
was all arranged, and Phi-ila is nurse and foster-mother ... so happy !
..." A few days later : " The poor child died . . . Phi-ila is dis-
consolate."
An incident like this is recorded with zest : for much of the
mission teaching is aimed at enforcing the rights of women : —
" One of the mission girls at Stanley Falls was sold to three or four
different men one after the other, but refused to be the wife of any-
body who could not read and write like herself. She was beaten, put
w,,..,-\..
1 1 6. PROTOPTERUS DOLLOI, THE LUNG-FISH OF THE UPPER CONGO
in the stocks, and tied up several times, but was absolute mistress of
the situation as far as getting married was concerned, and the money
had to be returned. Now she is married to the lad of her choice. She
said she was not going to be one of a crowd ; she wanted a husband of
her own."
On the 23rd of December 1896 Grenfell notes that the first
Bolobo girl has put on European clothes and is going to form
part of the household of a missionary's wife. At the close of
1 896 he writes : —
"There are not lacking signs that fill us with hope for the future.
The chiefs no longer exercise their claim of life and death, and are
losing their hold. They are evidently having a bad time of it with
some of the young sparks in the town. To-day the girls are beginning
to act independently. They see the mission boys and girls marrying
as they wish, and do not want to marry the oldest man in their homes."
MISSIONARY VICISSITUDES
245
A cry from the heart of a much-beaten wife ! —
"nth of August 1894." (Bolobo for five years has been a prey to
constant fighting between chief and chief, together with incessant
private vendette.) " Mumbele badly wounded in the face. His wife,
Dilongo, says, ' Oh that he might die ! ' I am afraid that there are
a great many whose hearts echo the same sentiment. Only yes-
terday one of the
neighbouring chiefs
said to us, 'Mum-
bele? He will die one
of these days, and
won't know death is
coming.' "
" 28th of January
1894. Chief Ngoie
has left this evening
for Stanley Pool. The
slave he gave Bo-
nongo has gone with
him, and taken ten
brass rods belonging
to Bonongo's mother.
Great outcry! Bihima
(another wife of
Ngoie) was in great
trouble. She had just
had a flogging on ac-
count of being twenty
brass rods short in
her account (Ngoie
said). She sent to
Patience 1 to borrow
the rods so that she
might settle with her
lord and master. She
lost half of one of her
ears a while ago in a
similar difficulty with the said lord and master."
'•-•
117. THE MISSION LAUNDRY MAN, BOPOTO
In 1894 Grenfell notes that the local medicine-men in the
vicinity of a Baptist mission station are beginning to fear to
attribute every death to witchcraft, and now often bring
it in as mambu manzambi= affair of God. He notes else-
where that in the old style the medicine-man would be con-
sulted immediately after the death and possibly burial as to the
cause. He would then dig a hole over the grave and make-
1 Mrs. Grenfell.
? 4 6 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
believe to see the object that caused the death and shoot it, or
else get into the hole and thrash all round it with a stick which
had been previously smeared with the blood of a fowl's head
concealed about his person for the purpose. He then waves
the blood-stained stick to show that if he has not actually killed
the " ndoki " he has at any rate badly wounded it.
The women-
missionaries of this
and other missions,
Protestant and
Catholic, have
taken a special and
successful interest
in hospital and dis-
pensary work, in
rescuing and train-
ing orphans, and
in attempting to
check the terrible
mortality among
the native children.
They are gradually
instructing the
mothers on the
proper feeding of
infants and on
reasonable reme-
dies for childish
complaints — na-
tive notions of
such medical treat-
ment being drastic
SEWING CLASS AT BOPOTO
to the degree of
child murder. 1
Miss Lily de Hailes and Mrs. William Forfeitt, Mrs. White-
head, Mrs. Clark, and Mrs. Howell have been particularly
successful in this work amongst the women and children of the
1 "Women on the Upper Congo stuff three or four days' old infants with boluses
of boiled manioc pulp (kwanga)."
" Hartsock tells of his watching a mother wash her infant — he counted
107 dips under the surface of the river, another day 48 dips. Just as the poor
creature is about to howl it is soused under water."
" Scrivener tells me he saw the mothers keep their babies quiet at Banza
Manteka by pouring water over their heads and giving them a regular douche. They
brought water to the chapel for that purpose." (Grenfell's Diary.)
MISSIONARY VICISSITUDES
247
western and northern Congo, and have appreciably checked
depopulation by saving many an unfortunate babe, starved or
diseased, orphaned or abandoned.
The men and women of the, Mission met on common
ground and in merry emulation in the schools, the dispensaries
and the garden. But whilst the women's special province was
the teaching of domestic arts, the men dealt separately with
industries more appropriate to the male sex — printing, the
II9. MRS. GRENFELL'S SEWING CLASS, BOLOBO
blacksmith's shop, brick- and tile-making, timber-cutting,
cabinet-making, and horticulture. 1
As in Uganda, so in the regions of the Upper Congo the
natives are eager to acquire the art of writing ; they are quick
to realize the importance of this means of communication be-
tween distant friends and comrades.
" Monsembi boys learning to write are very desirous of letting
their friends know they understand the mystic signs on paper and
how to make them, and take every occasion to send messages
chalked on chips of timber instead of conveying them verbally.
One boy said to his master, ' I am going into the town to-day
1 For years Messrs. Sutton, of Reading, have supplied the Baptist Mission
gratuitously with large consignments of vegetable and flower seeds suited to the
tropics and these have thus found their way into native horticulture on the Congo.
248 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
lift. 1
to a big palaver. I shall not be able to hear the bell because
of the noise we shall make, but if you send for me I will come ;
only do not send a boy with a
message : let him bring a little
note!'" (Grenfell.)
Many books — educational,
religious, linguistic — have been
printed and bound by natives of
Congoland at the presses of
the Baptist Mission, at those
likewise of the other Protestant
and Catholic mission stations,
and a good deal of the official
printing of the State is carried
out by mission - trained men.
At the Antwerp Exhibition of
1895 the Baptist Mission was
well represented with printing
and bookbinding exhibits and
with trained artisans from the
Congo. The exhibition of the
skill of these mission - trained
operatives was not well re-
ceived by the Belgian Socialists, who issued a pamphlet
complaining that
the Congo State IM '
was training " dirty
niggers to take
the bread out of
our mouths."
Wedding feasts
of their scholars or
adherents, athletic
sports, concerts,
picnics, shooting
expeditions (when
the nuisance of
plantation-destroy-
ing elephants, hip-
pos, bush -pigs,
and buffaloes re-
quired abatement, or terrorizing leopards or crocodiles pro-
voked reprisals), and the visits of other missionaries of different
I20. "HOW THEY LOOK WHEN THEY
COME FIRST TO THE MISSION"
121. "AFTER SIX MONTHS"
MISSIONARY VICISSITUDES
249
faiths and sects; 1 all these breaks in what might have be-
come a monotony of well-doing saved mission life from the
danger of insipidity. But in the doings of the natives around
them there was quite sufficient excitement — at any rate from
1883 to 1900— to avert stagnation in the atmosphere of
religious and secular instruction. Here are some extracts
from Grenfell's diary to illustrate the "alarums and excur-
122. THE GARDEN OF A B.M.S. STATION, UPPER CONGO
sions " in the neighbourhood of a mission station in the old
unruly days.
1 " 22nd of January 1894 (Bolobo). Antoinette (eight days from the Pool) called
on her way to Zongo Rapids (Mubangi), having on board Bishop Augouard. He is
going thither with four missionaries to found a station. Part of the explorer Monteil's
expedition is on board. A noticeable feature in their outfit consists of sectional boats
of aluminium, the sections having axles and wheels so that they may fulfil the service
of waggons. The Bishop was very gracious, and referred to the early days when we
met (thirteen years ago) on the Mpozo, and to the changes that have taken place
since that time. He tells me that the choir of his cathedral has been consecrated,
and that the stained-glass windows presented by the Prince de Croy and Mr. Gres-
hoff are very effective. The height of the bell turret is twenty metres." (Grenfell.)
On another occasion we find Grenfell and the Peace coming to the rescue of
Bishop Augouard's party when the Bishop's steamer Leon XIII had broken down,
and the French Mission sending to their Baptist colleagues a magnificent present
of carved ivories in acknowledgment of the friendly help afforded by the Peace. I
find in the records of the Baptist Mission no record of any but pleasant relations with
the French and Belgian Catholics on the Upper Congo. The old-fashioned nineteenth-
century spitefulness between different sections of the Christian Church does not seem
to have penetrated east of Stanley Pool or west of Tanganyika.
2 5 o GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
He writes in 1890: —
" Lots of humbugging all round " (that is to say, in reference to
inquiries as to people being killed at burial ceremonies). " They
cordially despise our powers of observation, and think we are easily
hoodwinked. Stanley was quite right when he said that the black
man despises the white, thinks him rich and strong, very ' funny,' but
withal a fool to be worked."
" Bolobo, 5th of May 1894. Our new home is being built on the
Mandelo boundary between the Ngoie and Bobangi towns. It has been
123. BRICK-MAKERS AT B.M.S. STATION, YAKUSU
the custom when making laws between these two sections to contribute
to the cost of a slave, then to break his arms and legs, and bury him up
to his neck by way of putting a seal to the new law. On digging a
hole for one of the posts of our new house, we came across one of these
skeletons in its vertical position.
"6th of May 1894. Baptismal service in Bolobo. Mafuta, Risasi,
Fataki, and Nga Makala joined the Church. Town in considerable
excitement about the disappearance of Ekila (the wife of a man just
dead). Part say that she has been buried with her dead husband
yesterday. Others say she has run away. It transpired this evening
that she is in hiding with one of Ngoie's wives.
" 9th of May. More seeking for Ekila. The corpse is still unburied.
MISSIONARY VICISSITUDES
251
Bokatula ya Manga demanded her from Lokumo this morning.
Lokumo said, ' Your man died in my house. You took his body away,
and all the women went to cry. Have I been to take your woman ? '
Bokatula proceeded to Ngoie's place, and said, ' I have come for Ekila.'
' Have I taken Ekila ? ' 'If you don't hand her over there will be a
fight.' ' I am ready,' said Ngoie ; ' let's go out to the erobie (grass
land) and settle it.'
" I am told the corpse is very ' high.' One poor slave has already
been killed, a man bought from the back (Batende). Ekotobongo said
many times before he died, ' Mind, when I go, that Ekila is not left
behind. If she is not buried with me I will come and haunt you.' His
friends are therefore afraid of Ekotobongo's ghost, and Ngoie, Lokumo,
and others are afraid of ' Bula Matadi.' ... I have learnt that Ekoto-
I24. PORTUGUESE ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSION STATION, MALANJE,
PORTUGUESE CONGO
bongo is now buried in the bush, the townspeople being afraid to have
him for a near neighbour, so they have not put him as usual under the
floor of his house. Eyoka says it is burying for the pigs. Whether
that refers to the manner of it, or that when the rain comes the pigs
will find the place and devour the corpse, I do not know. . . ."
"March 11 1895. J. H. tells me of a ghost story at Lulongo. A
certain woman slave had been killed, and her spirit haunted the path
by the place where she was buried. She would follow people and call
after them. ' I know what is the matter,' said one, ' she died hungry.
Let me have some ntuka and palm oil and fish.' He visited the place,
and when the ghost came out he said, ' All right ! I know what is the
matter. You are hungry. We have brought some food.' The ghost
was laid "
25^ GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Where they are harmless, Grenfell is tender of local cus-
toms and observances : —
" I fell down. The boys saw, and cried, ' Mpoto,' and I have to pay.
If anyone of position falls down, the onlookers cry 'Mpoto' and
claim a fee. A chief pays 200 rods. It cost me more, for Boyambula
said, ' You are Ngoie's people, we are nobodies.' This distinction is*
made now and again, and I am careful to make it plain that we are
here as much for Babangi as for Bamoye, so paid the mpoto:'
In these diaries there are many notes on religious teaching,
■is
125. SCHOLARS AT A PORTUGUESE ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSION STATION,
PORTUGUESE CONGO
especially for the translation of Christian dogmas and meta-
phors. The Trinity was a great stumbling-block to the out-
spoken Congo peoples, who often complained in Grenfell's hear-
ing that while their teachers insisted there was but one God,
they nevertheless enjoined on them the worship of " two." The
diarist adds in a note that it was difficult to ensure recognition
for the Holy Ghost as an independent member of the Trinity.
Some of the native evangelists were inconveniently zealous.
If they observed a man or woman sleeping in the audience at
any service or lecture they instantly made them stand up, and
in obdurate cases laid on whacks to rouse the slumbrous to the
full sense of their enormities. Another over-zealous convert
MISSIONARY VICISSITUDES
253
brought his wife to the Mission and accused her of sin in that
she had been "grinding her teeth." His idea arose from a
distortion of the passage, "Where there shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth " ! Meantime to prevent listless-
ness during discourses (especially when teaching was new to
the people or the teacher imperfectly acquainted with the
vernacular) the natives were told that they might bring some
light handiwork to the schoolroom or chapel, which could be
an occupation to their idle fingers, whilst their minds were
126. MAN AND WOMAN OF THE NGOMBE TRIBE, ADHERENTS OF THE
BAPTIST MISSION, BOPOTO
occupied with the missionary's discourse. Several women of
obtuseness (rather than malice prepense) made this suggestion
ridiculous by cracking palm nuts with hammers or splitting fire-
wood with such a din that the exhortation fell on deafened ears.
Grenfell enjoys recording occasional anecdotes of this kind, no
doubt to show that the converts still retained in their dispositions
traces of the old Adam : —
" One of the native evangelists, who had previously been an nganga
or medicine-man, had in his previous capacity taken many fees. After
his conversion to Christianity he was challenged by his former dupes to
return the money he had received as fees for his services. This he
254 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
declined to do, saying, ' At that time I was serving the Devil, and these
fees were the wages I got for my service. ' "
" A native youth from the Upper Congo of weakly build admitted
to me that he was only fooling the people by getting money out of
them for charms. ' But you see,' he said, ' I cannot work, and I must
live somehow ! '"
Here is an episode, culled from the diary, illustrating the
leave-taking of a missionary . who after eight years' work
amongst the restless, excitable Babangi had won their affection
and confidence : —
" 1 8th July 1894. Darby is evidently very popular, for the people
are much averse to his leaving. They have been calling him all sorts
of bad names because he leaves them. ' You know our language and
can teach us, and now you are going to leave us in the dark again.
You are bad ! You are bad ! What are you going for ? ' He replies,
'Don't I want to see my father, sisters, and brothers? That is not bad?'
' But what do you want to go all that way for? Are we not all your
people ? Are we not your brothers and sisters ? Don't we all belong to
you?' 'But perhaps I want to bring a wife to help me!' 'Oh!
Thats no reason. Look here (pointing to a circle of women) ; one, two,
three, four, five, six— take which one you like — take them all! ! '"'
But no picture of missionary life on the banks of the Upper
Congo would be complete without allusion to the difficulties
connected with navigation. The mission boats, canoes, steamers
must be constantly plying between station and station, schools
and workshops, the villages of Christian natives and those still
remaining in heathenry.
Such adventures as are here described could of course
be told of the American members of the' Congo Balolo and
Presbyterian missions, the Roman Catholic missionaries, and
other propagandists on the Upper Congo, besides the traders
and State officials. They only possess special interest because
— recorded as they are just after the incident has happened —
they exhibit vividly the difficulties attending steamer traffic on
these nine thousand miles of Central African rivers, the unfailing
good temper of Grenfell and his colleagues, and the wonderful
aptitude of the Upper Congo negroes by which, after a few years'
tuition, they could be turned from naked, noisy cannibals into
quiet, workmanlike mechanicians and engineers, with just here
and there a relapse into indifference and thoughtlessness : —
"Bolobo, March 18 1897. Heavy weather. Having the lighter
Bristol and the s.s. Goodwill 1 on the beach, heavily laden for the run up-
1 The Goodwill was the fine new steamer launched at Bolobo in 1893.
127. NATIVES STREAMING DOWN TO WELCOME THE MISSION STEAMER AT YAKUSU, UPPER CONGO
MISSIONARY VICISSITUDES
257
river, we are anxious to get away, for water is dead low, and heavy
weather is especially trying to our craft at this season.
" March 19. At 9 p.m. last evening a strong wind from the south
decided me to anchor the Bristol separate from the Goodwill ; so we
had the Peace, Bristol, and Goodwill each within half a length of the
other, and the outside one not far enough from the rocks to allow
of their swinging round. By 9.30 the Goodwill had swung upstream
to within dangerous proximity of the reef, and we had to get a stern
anchor out downstream. But the canoe had been so lifted on to the
beach by the heavy surf that it took twenty men nearly an hour to get
it off. However, by half-past ten, and after several intervals of absolute
darkness (for though we had three lanterns, heavier gusts then usual
would at times put them all out) we managed so to fix things that we
128. THE "PEACE" DAMAGED IN A STORM
were able to go to bed and sleep, all the more readily because the wind
was falling, though the surf rolled in on the beach as it does roll after
the wind has had full play with the Congo water for six miles. . . .
" March 20. This morning we had nearly an hour's work to gel: the
steamer off the beach, for the wind had blown her stern on to the sand
with such force that fifty men pushing off could not make her budge an
inch. After some attempts we resorted to the use of a long, heavy
plank lever inserted under the stern of the steamer in a hole dug in
the sand. With this piece of timber as a fulcrum and some twenty
men on the plank the bow of the steamer was sufficiently eased from the
sand to allow of the pushing men to move her a few inches. Another
lift after another hole had been dug and the fulcrum rearranged, and
we moved a foot. A third attempt, and we were free and swinging by
the anchor where it had run out astern to prevent our being blown on
the rocks, which we could not have avoided if we had tried to steam
258 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
out astern, for we should have been on the reef before we could have got
any way on the steamer.
" At last we were clear and our stern anchor aboard ; we blew a
farewell on the whistle, dipped our flag by way of good-bye to our
friends on the beach who had come to see us off. As soon as we got
on our course we rang three on the signal gong, equal to ' All right,
full speed ahead.' But we had not got full way on when the water
began to break over the gunwale of the forty-foot canoe we had on the
port side ; indeed, it also came over the side of the Bristol, a fifty-foot
lighter we had on the starboard side ; but this being decked, it was a
matter of no consequence.
" To prevent sinking at once, we rang the signal for slow. But even
_JHHHHIMHIHMlHiillMiift^i^^8
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129. THE BOYS WHO HELPED TO PUT THE "PEACE" RIGHT AGAIN
at slow the water came in faster than we could bale it out, so we
stopped ; but then the steamer lost steering way and broached to, and
the canoe filled and would have gone down, but that it was of light
wood, and also had been firmly secured to the after bollards, as well as
to the towing-boom forward. By this time we had come into sight of
a wind-bound steamer waiting in a sheltered bay for the waves to
moderate before she ventured to face them. We were going with the
wind, so it was a very different matter for us, though bad enough,
seeing we had to run ashore and beach the canoe before we could bale
her out. However, we managed to get just a little more than a mile
in the first hour of our run and to make another start. By careful man-
oeuvring, and going slowly, we managed to run a mile and a half,
passing the wind-bound steamer, when down went the canoe again, and
again we had to run to the beach to bale her out, and fought the
troublesome substitute for the boat we lost last year. By this time,
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MISSIONARY VICISSITUDES
261
however, the worst of the water was behind us, for we had got into
a sheltered region behind an island, and we were able to ring ' All
right, full speed ahead,' and this time without having to ring down
again till an hour or so later, when we ran on a shoal, with only
three feet of water where last season there was a deep channel. But
pulling the helm hard over, and carefully feeling our way with the
lead, we were not long
before we struck the
new channel the water
had cut for itself.
" The trouble with
the canoe had quite
spoilt my breakfast,
though I managed
while on my feet to get
a spoonful or two of
porridge, thus satisfy-
ing my most pressing
claims of appetite. By
the time dinner was
ready I was very hun-
gry, but so many had
been seasick on ac-
count of the heavy
weather that every-
thing was late. By
this time, too, heavy
clouds to the south-
west began to bank
up over Bolobo Hill,
and the lightning we
saw and the thunder
we heard told us we
had got away only
just in time to escape
another storm. But
the clouds were begin-
ning to work round to
east and south. So
long as they were
somewhat behind us
we had little fear. By
three o'clock, however, they had so gained on us that they were well
abreast, and it became needful to seek shelter to windward, not always
an easy task on a river like the Congo with its long open stretches.
"We had just barely reached a promising little channel between
two islands when the wind broke over us with full tornado force, playing
havoc with the tops of the trees, and lashing the main stream into fury.
Protected as we were by the forest, we felt but little of it, though we
deemed it needful to warp into a new position lest a tree might fall
across our steamer, an accident that has occurred before now on the
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131. BUNGUDI, THE MISSION ENGINEER, AND HIS WIFE
(Bungudi was a Bateke boy, trained by Grenfell.)
262 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Congo. Just before night set in the rain began to fall as only tropical
rain can, and though it only kept up for a couple of hours things were
damp by the time it was finished, for such rain driven by the fag-end of
a tornado finds out every corner and makes things uncomfortably moist.
We must have had over a couple of inches of rain in two hours.
" This delay with that of the morning quite prevented our getting
to Nkunda as we hoped in time to spend Saturday night and Sunday
among the people of that important trading-place at the mouth of the
Alima, on the French side of the river. As we felt we could not keep
our crew all day in the reeking swamp where we had put up to avoid
the storm, we got up steam, and after four hours of easy going reached
our hoped-for port for the day. After an informal sort of Sunday-school
on board in the afternoon whereat Patty played her violin, Bungudi his
melodeon, and the dozen or more children we had on board sang
lustily, we adjourned on shore for a meeting among the people. The
music was a great attraction, and we got a hundred or more of them to
listen to messages from both the Law and the Gospel. The 'Law'
made some of them wince perceptibly, for they had tied up a poor
creature accused of witchcraft and were preparing to 'cut the witch out
of him ' (a proceeding involving death) as evidence of the truth of their
charge.
" By daylight the next morning steam was up and we were well
under weigh when the sun rose in a splendour all peculiar to this season
of storms. It was a glorious sight, and our hearts involuntarily wor-
shipped the Author of it all. . . .
" We met at Bunga an agent of the Dutch house who a month or
two ago left Brazzaville in the ill-fated Alima for the upper Sanga,
taking with him some 50,000 francs' worth of barter goods for the es-
tablishment of a factory. Unfortunately, the Alima sank in deep water
and is a total loss for the French Government, who are now left with
only one steamer afloat of all their fleet. . . . Just now Bunga is dry
enough, the water having only just begun to rise after a fall of nearly
eighteen feet. When the flood was at its maximum the agents of the
S.A. Co. could only leave their verandah by means of a canoe. The
Dutch house is just above high-water mark, and has not been flooded.
It occupies the only spot that is not annually covered. . . ."
"29th of March 1898. We started this morning for Bonginda, but
although we left in good time, the sandbanks were so numerous that
we did not get in till after dark. Off Bisanga we had quite a difficulty
to get into the channel, a long, oblique sandbank some two miles in
length ending in a crest one could plainly see over which the river
flowed as over a weir. Excepting at its extremity close to the left
bank, it appeared nowhere to have more than eighteen inches of water
over it, and less than a foot over by far the greater part of it. The
only available channel was about two fathoms deep, but as it was not
much broader than twelve feet, and as the shore line was bristling with
snags, it would have been a difficult pass even in good weather,
whereas we had quite a heavy wind blowing upstream, and our vessel
(eighty-four feet long) did not swing round quickly enough. So we had
to back out and try again. The next attempt was abo a failure. The
MISSIONARY VICISSITUDES
263
third time we fetched up against a snag, but the fourth was a success,
and we got through. I have never made the passage up the Lulongo at
such low water along the channel between the island and the bend where
Bonginda comes into view and the mainland. We had to cross four
times from island to mainland before we got through, and it was only
by scraping the trees just below Bonginda that we managed to find
water enough. Coming down, we simply charged the bank both here
and at Bosonga, and
cut a way through ;
for the crests of these
banks are but narrow,
though quite wide
enough to resist the
passage of a steamer
against currents.
Steam plus current
gave us sufficient im-
petus to jump the
banks as we came
down. Providing the
sandbanks are not
wide enough to take
the speed off our go-
ing, it is not difficult
for a sharp-edged
steamer like the Good-
will 'to cut the needful
groove through them,
especially when she is
laden, and charges
bow down, though it
makes things dance
on board ! We find if
our steamer is light
forward she just glides
up on to the bank and
sits down, and then
there is trouble ! Six,
eight, ten, or even fif-
teen hours on a sunken
bank, as we have had
at times, with every-
body pushing or pulling or laying out anchors — this is no joke, especially
with a tropical liver and lots of bile accumulating ! . . .
" 30th of March 1898. . . . We set to work at once to take off the
starboard propeller, the shake having become too bad to allow of our
passing the remainder of our journey without attending to it. The
keyway is tight in the shaft, but it is too small for the propeller. We
hammered it out to the necessary amount, though as it is of tool steel
it is slow and tedious work. To allow of the propeller going further up
the cone of the tail shaft we have to cut the after end of the wing of
132. LOKONGI, A MISSION TEACHER AT BOLOBO
264 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
this key. We have had to take out a watertight gland in one of the
bulkheads to remove the intermediate shaft, and to allow of the tail
shaft being withdrawn from the stern tube, for we find it needful to
work on the shaft as well as the propeller. . . . 31st of March. . . . We
finished by 6 p.m., but only just managed to get through. The pro-
peller doors (we have doors through the bottom hole for working at the
propeller) had to be repacked.
"21st of April 1898. This evening one of our stupid boys (one of
the stupidest of them) went to take the cap off the water inlet for fill-
ing the boiler before the steam was quite finished after blowing down.
As a consequence, he was half scared out of his wits at the rush of
steam, and what was worse, the cap went overboard in eighteen feet
of water, with a strong current running. Some of the boys managed
to touch the bottom in their efforts to find the cap, but it was useless
to try and pick up so small an article. Unfortunately, we have nothing
larger than one-inch pipe thread screwing gear on board, so we have
to extemporize clips and cover-plate and bolt them together with the
connecting bolts of the spare eccentric gear. Poor Bungudi is sweating
away as I write this to fix up the apparatus."
CHAPTER XIII
THE RIVER CONGO
BETWEEN 1890 and 1900 Grenfell had, when oppor-
tunity offered, continued his explorations of the main
Congo, besides making occasional visits to Lake
Ntomba, the lower Sanga, the Lulongo, Rubi, Aruwimi,
Lomami, Lindi, and Chopo rivers. This period of ten years
133. GRENFELL, LAWSON FORFEITT, MR. AND MRS. LEWIS AT SAN SALVADOR, 1 893
was, however, mainly devoted to the Emperor river of this
mighty confederation, in which the Mubangi, Kasai, Lomami,
Ruki, Sanga, and Aruwimi are vassal Kings, and the remain-
ing streams Grand Dukes, Princes, Margraves, and Serene
Highnesses.
When Grenfell paid his last visit to England in 1 900-1 he
prepared for publication by the Royal Geographical Society
265
266 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
his magnificent map of the Congo in ten sections, from Stanley
Pool to Stanley Falls.
Between 1878 and 1892 he had studied the aspects of the
Lower Congo from Banana Point on the Atlantic coast to the
Kintambu or Ntamo Rapids, at
the western exit from Stanley
Pool ; and in 1903 — • possibly
again in 1905 — he had visited
the Lualaba- Congo above Stan-
ley Falls to as far south as the
Hinde Rapids and the Bambare
Mountains. His notes, there-
fore (together with those of his
colleagues and of other travel-
lers), on the leading character-
istics of the main Congo may be
conveniently summarized here in
the last chapter but one dealing
with these missionary explora-
tions.
The actual mouth of the Congo
is seven miles wide between
Banana Point on the north-east
and the hook-like promontory of
Sant' Antonio (Shark Point) on
the south-west. But the whole
estuary is from fifteen miles to
seventeen miles at its broadest,
between Nemlao, near Banana,
and King Antonio's town on the
shores of Diego's Bay.
The great depths in the main
channel of the estuarine Congo
begin eastwards off Mumpanga
Island (Mbulambemba) and
range between seventy-two and
134. map of banana point, on the . £ hundred feet This deep
NORTH SIDE OF THE CONGO UI11C " U | U1CU 'f^ 1, , X " 1S UC< -] J
mouth trough (increasing in depth to
four thousand feet) is carried
west -north -west, outside the river's "under-hung" mouth
(shaped like a salmon's jaws), through a shallow coastal
sea for some hundred and twenty miles, till it merges in the
ocean depths ; and all this distance the current and the fresh
water of the mighty river are still discernible.
THE RIVER CONGO 267
The innumerable islands and creeks of the Congo near the
mouth of its estuary are covered with mangrove woods, with
here and there an occasional pandanus. But at Kisanga, a
Portuguese trading station on the south bank, the forest growth
becomes more varied, and especially beautiful are the eight-feet-
high Lissochilus orchids. The strange scenery of Kisanga is
well worth a visit, and was described by the present writer
many years ago as a " vegetable Venice." There is behind
the vast lake-like Congo a labyrinthine maze of narrow tidal
creeks, natural canals permeating an absolutely flat mudland
covered with fantastic forest — mangroves, pandanus, wild date,
raphia and oil palms, tall ferns, taller orchids (with enormous
135. BANANA POINT, AX THE MOUTH OF THE CONGO
red-mauve, gold-centred flowers), large-leaved fig trees, and an
occasional slender-stemmed cocoa-nut. This green and grey
vegetation fringed with the mauve orchids is reflected with
mirror-like fidelity in the still water. Its monotony of half-tint
is broken here and there by black, gnarled, rotting stems of dead
trees or by the bunches of black ants' nests in the tree-forks.
The Musscenda shrubs contribute their white-velvet clusters
of sepals, and some of the mangroves' stems and roots are
glistening grey-white. Roosted on the outlying branches are
white and black fishing-vultures.
Otherwise the inhabitants of this Venice of winding creek
and fantastic tree architecture are more nearly toned to the sur-
roundings. Greenish-grey and umber-brown colobus monkeys
move quietly about the leafy branches, eating the foliage of certain
268 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
trees ; fishing-owls of red or yellowish-brown perch unperceived
on boles and stumps of the same colour ; small greenish-grey
glossy herons lurk amongst the snags and roots that are left
above the mud of the retreating tide ; blue and grey kingfishers,
grey and pink barbets perch on bare twigs ; greenish-grey mud-
hopping fish (Periofihthalmus) flip-flop through the ooze and up
on to the exposed tree roots, pursued by large dark-blue and
buff land-crabs emerging from rat-hole burrows in the strips
of sand. Out in the open water floating logs look like grey-
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136. THE ESTUARINE CONGO NEAR ITS MOUTH
brown crocodiles, and crocodiles, half submerged or wholly
exposed on banks of sand or mud, look like grey-brown rugose
tree trunks.
The A-solongo people who, as fishermen, dwell in this tidal
swamp region of the Congo estuary (south bank chiefly) are
still a suspicious, degenerate, unpromising race, a people who
have been strangely neglected by all missionary societies since
the eighteenth century, down to the establishment among them
of the American Baptists a few years ago at Mukimvika on
the Portuguese bank. The natives of the north bank of the
Congo estuary are, in the swamps, A-solongo, but on the high
ground farther north belong to the Kakongo stock, a much
THE RIVER CONGO
269
mixed community of low, brutish slaves and intelligent, better-
looking freemen or aristocracies. The lower classes are called
Bafiote; the higher, A-ngoyo, Kabinda, Bavili, and Ba-Kochi.
A-soIongo and Kakongo are alike related closely in language to
the Eshi-kongo or Bakongo of the cataract region.
Opposite Ponta da Lenha 1 the main Congo narrows sud-
denly to a width of under a mile, as regards the clear channel
navigable by big steamers ; though the breadth taken across
water, islands, and sandbanks at this point is the average seven
miles of the estuarine Congo. Eastwards of Ponta da Lenha
the Congo swells out again to a breadth of some thirteen
I37. SKIN OF PYTHON, 25 FT. LONG, 2 FT. 7 IN. BROAD WHEN DRY,
KILLED AT NGANGILA, NEAR MATADI
miles, and has almost the aspect of Stanley Pool with the
channels north and south of the long central island of Mateba.
Between Fetish Rock on the south and the easternmost
extremity of the Mateba archipelago on the north the Congo
again narrows as one approaches Boma.
This place has long been of importance. The name should
really be spelt Mboma or Emboma, and is probably identical
with the word for python. Not only are (or were) enormous
pythons 2 very common in that district, but they may have been
x Which in Portuguese means the Wooding Point.
2 Some of these are reported to have measured thirty feet in length. Here is an
authentic account of one killed by the Rev. M. Hunter Reid some few years ago at
Ngangila, about thirty miles north-east of Boma. The passage is extracted from a
2 7 o GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
at one time associated as a totem with some clan of people estab-
lished at this place. Boma probably derived its early importance
from being the first approach from the seaward side of the solid
mainland to the waters of the Congo, and also as the eastern
limit of easy tidal navigation up the Congo estuary.
About Boma the Congo diminishes abruptly in breadth,
and the stream becomes strong and swift. In fact, one has
entered the Cataract region, though the river continues to be
tfjgj|p#f ffppfa? & -»« :„.- K ,-
Wl!|ii||||li|||l|i||pl
138. LOOKING DOWN THE CONGO TOWARDS BOMA, FROM UNDERBILL
letter recently written by Mr. Hunter Reid to the Rev. Lawson Forfeitt, whose
brother, the Rev. William Forfeitt, photographed the skin of the snake : —
" In answer to your question, the snake's skin when dry was 25 feet 2 inches
long, and 2 feet 7 inches wide. It is now in the New York Museum. The morning
I shot the leopard from which Mrs. Forfeitt took some of the claws, the natives ran
out a buffalo and some antelope at the back of the Mission. I shot the buffalo and
two antelope. You had one hind-quarter, if you remember. Just as the natives
entered the woods or jungle to start up more game that huge snake knocked one
man to the ground, breaking one arm and several ribs. It then threw itself about
him and reached for another man, whom it also g'ot into its embrace before I could
get to the spot. When I arrived I had to pick a shot at its head and not harm the
two men, whom it held with the grip of a vice. I shot it but once. The expansive
ball used blew out one half of its brain, and its motions on the ground were a sight
long to be remembered. When the snake ceased to struggle I and the natives could
walk along its back as easily as you could walk on a great big log. No doubt you
remember that the stomach of the snake contained not less than one peck of brass,
copper, and iron rings, such as the natives wear on the arms and legs. The stomach
was taken by one of King Nsikachi's witch-doctors, and prized by him as a wonderful
charm. A snake of that size would swallow an antelope as large as a cow, horns
and all."
To face fi. 270
THE RIVER CONGO 271
navigable for powerful steamers as far eastwards as Matadi, or
even the approach to Vivi. The depth of the zigzag channel
between Vivi and the vicinity of Boma is very great. The
river is comparatively narrow, scarcely more than an average
mile in width. But in the central channel it has a depth of
from three hundred to one hundred and eighty feet. The
velocity of the current opposite Matadi is about seven miles an
hour, and there are dangerous whirlpools and eddies for canoes
and small boats, caused by the deep, swift water swirling
round hidden rocks.
Eastwards of Boma, low hills begin to approach the river-
bank closely, and above Noki these become relatively
lofty and picturesque, rising to heights of eight hundred to
a thousand feet more or less abruptly from the river's brim.
" Hell's Cauldron" (Mayumba Bay), on the north bank of the
Congo, opposite the old site of the Baptist mission station of
Underhill (Tunduwa), is a grand cliff of purple-red crowned
with light green grassland. Here the river, which has long
flowed over a rocky bed, is comparatively free of detritus in its
upper waters, 1 and is therefore of glassy clearness. The swirl-
ing of the water prevents clear reflections, but nevertheless the
whole surface of the contracted river is tinged with a dull purple
tone, caught from the deep purplish-red bare cliff above it, and
altogether suggestive of some awful Styx faintly tinged with
the glow of hell fire.
On either side the Congo now — in the vicinity of Matadi —
the hills rise as swelling downs or abrupt terraces to eventual
altitudes of two and three thousand feet. Some little distance
at the back of Boma and Vivi magnificent forest still lingers — •
generally known as the Mayombe Forest — and this covers
much of the country away from the vicinity of the Congo
northwards to the Nyari-Kwilu River. In this district at the
back of Boma and Isano-fla there is still much game — red
buffalo, cobus antelopes, reed-buck, bush-buck, and duykers ;
also many leopards.
On the southern side of the Congo, in Portuguese territory,
both behind the mangrove and pandanus marshlands already
described, and beyond the grassy, stony hills that succeed them,
1 It is a remarkable fact that there are, as it were, two sections of water in the
Lower Congo. The under stratum from Vivi to the sea is salt or brackish and
charged with silt. This, the greater mass of the Lower Congo water, is only slightly
affected by tide and flood, and is relatively immobile. The upper current is fresh
and flows swiftly, counteracting the ebb tide very considerably. This upper current
may vary twenty feet in height in the gorge between Matadi and Prince's Island,
near Boma, according to flood time or dry season.
272 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
the country becomes parklike, but exhibits nowhere any vast
stretch of primeval forest. It has evidently been much more
subdued by the hand of man than the regions north of the
Lower Congo.
At Matadi, now the principal port of the Lower Congo,
whither ocean-going steamers can proceed to discharge their
cargo, the Railway 1 commences, and proceeds in a fairly straight
direction to Stanley Pool, taking, however, a wide divergence
Hftfta
tmstmfm
mm.
' ..
139. OLD UNDERHILL (TUNDUWA) STATION AND HELL'S CAULDRON
from the course of the cataract Congo ; for if an attempt is
made to follow the river upstream from Matadi the path along
1 The Congo Railway from Matadi to Stanley Pool was opened for public use on
July 4th 1898. It had taken eight and a half years to construct, and of course during
the process of its construction it was assailed by every form of invective, ridicule, dis-
paragement, etc. etc., as is the fate of all pioneering African railways, those of Sierra
Leone, the Gold Coast, Lagos, Uganda, and the Sudan not excepted. The in-
auguration of the complete line was attended by some degree of ceremony, and the
Baptist Mission, grateful for its facilities, took a prominent part in the festivities.
They received a visit, amongst other guests of the State, from M. de Kologrivoff, the
official delegated by the Tsar of Russia to be present at the opening of the railway
and to report in general on the affairs of the Congo Free State. The missionaries of
this society, and of all others that I have interrogated, speak in the highest terms of
the railway management by Colonel Thys and of his action generally in Congo ques-
tions. The railway has undoubtedly been one of the most successful manifestations
of Belgian enterprise and good administration. An excellent description of the line
was published in 1907 by M. Louis Goffin (Brussels, Weissenbruch).
»;■-
,
m
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THE RIVER CONGO
275
its banks would proceed at first almost due north to Isangila,
and then north-eastwards.
Above Vivi the traveller coming from the west encounters
the 270 miles' series of cataracts which Stanley named the
Livingstone Falls. Between Vivi-Matadi and Isangila the
Congo is perfectly unnavigable, from its swiftness. The first
impassable rapids to be met with in ascending the river from
the sea are at Nzeke, seven miles east of Vivi. Above that
come the falls of Yalala. These are described by Stanley as
a series of vehement, rushing, tumultuous, and vexed waters
141.
A STEAMER ASCENDING THE LOWER CONGO HEADING FOR THE
PORT OF MATADI
precipitated with remarkable force and energy down an incline
which drops some forty-five feet in a course of five or six miles.
Their noise can be heard nine miles away. The width of the
Congo at this place is less than five hundred yards. s! c? b! C12
Above the falls of Yalala, the narrowing Congo is strewn
with several islands and islets, one especially remarkable — at
any rate, some years ago — for being a mass of velvet woods,
contrasting strongly with the harsh, bare rocks and innumerable
boulders of the surrounding landscapes. Another islet was white
with guano and numbers of pelicans squatting and standing on
its summit. This, when the present writer saw it in 1883, was a
favourite breeding-place for these birds, being inaccessible to man.
Before the first fall takes place, the river^glides on smoothly
276 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
with a clear surface, "as if never suspecting the terrible conflict
before it." The narrowing channel is then split in two by
a long, low, narrow, rocky island. In the passages on either
side of this the river lashes itself into fury, coming down (as
Bentley says) "with a series of ten-foot leaps, plunging into
wild waves at a high velocity, wave dashing upon wave, and
throwing the spray far into the air." According to Bentley, the
r ver channel is not excessively deep at Yalala ; yet the gorge
is narrow. " It is a struggle of water not to be surpassed on
the face of the earth."
According to the present writer's notes, made twenty-four
WMmm
;.,*. •~i*~>: 'Vi^agKBrf*:
<ap@?
WW*!
.,..55»38S:
142. THE RIVER CONGO ABOVE VIVI, BELOW THE NZEKE RAPIDS,
THE LAST OF THE LIVINGSTONE FALLS
years ago, the Congo does not descend at each of the three
or four cataracts of Yalala more than about twelve feet at a
time. The air in this gorge (from which the hills rise steeply
to heights of fifteen hundred feet) is full of comminuted spray,
maintaining a special vegetation. The rocks near the water's
edge are covered with a long- filamental water-weed of intense
emerald-green which looks like tresses of long green hair. A
Plumbago creeper festoons the brows of the caverns which the
water at some time or other has hollowed in the walls of stone,
caverns which are now above the level of the flood. This
creeper puts forth many tufts of bluish-white flowers. On the
grey rocks large blue and red lizards chase flies that are basking
THE RIVER CONGO
277
in the sunlight, both lizards and flies being attracted by the
operations of the native fishermen, who place wickerwork
baskets and traps along the edges of the torrent to catch the
fish that are swirled down the falls of Yalala.
A good many years ago the gorge of the Congo between
Yalala and Isangila was much frequented by the red buffaloes
of West Africa. So abundant were they on many a grassy flat
at the mouth of some small tributary of the Congo as to give
these natural meadows quite a farmyard smell. But no doubt
the presence of Europeans and the abundance of guns in the
:f : :, : : .
',% <" X.
■;■
" --X'i'X
,„,.-, >r.\
143. GENERAL VIEW OF THE YALALA FALLS
possession of the natives have long since driven away or
destroyed the buffaloes of Isangila.
There is a good deal of beautiful scenery — high cliff, forest-
filled gorges, white weirs of broken water — between Vivi and
Isangila, but this region still remains, for no reason as yet dis-
covered, a very unhealthy part of the Congo. It is infested by
the small, black biting flies (Simulium).
According to Bentley, the narrowest part of the whole
Congo channel is not at Yalala, but between Ngoma Mountain
and Isangila, to the south of that place. Here the Congo
must be of enormous depth, as its tremendous volume of water
flows in the main through one passage scarcely more than one
278 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
hundred and thirty yards wide, and another not more than
thirty yards in width on the other side of the island. Yet
there is no swirling, and not only small steamers but rowing-
boats can ascend against the stream.
Another very narrow part of the river is opposite the mouth
of the Kwilu, between Isangila and Manyanga.
From Isangila to Manyanga there are several rapids, 1 but
none that are impassable by a steamer or even a boat. Over
this stretch of some seventy miles a good deal of navigation
was carried on in the early days of the Congo Free State and
■ "••.'V ; -fe
im
144. FALLS OF CONGO AT ISANGILA : SKETCH BY THE AUTHOR
of the Baptist Mission. The river remains narrow, and com-
passed by lofty downs, variegated here and there by strange,
craggy, castellated rocks, in which there are remarkable out-
crops of limestone. To the south of Manyanga there are
peaks on the plateau which rise to between three and four
thousand feet, such as Mount Wia. In the bed of the river,
between Isangila and Itunzima Rapids, there are curious reefs
of slate-like rocks running parallel with the river's course and
at its average height just a few feet above the foaming water.
They look in their regular though tilted stratification like rows
of slates in a builder's yard. The shore-line of the Congo and
of its larger islands is of dazzling white sand. These sandbanks
Notably, in this order as one ascends, the Nzambi, Itunzima, and Ndunga.
THE RIVER CONGO
279
are often pitted with black holes, seemingly the burrows in which
the pratincoles {Galaclochrysea) nest. The banks, at any rate,
are haunted by numbers of these small, red-beaked, swallow-like
plovers.
In portions of the Isangila-Manyanga stretch the Congo
widens to a mile in breadth, but it may also narrow to a little
over three hundred yards. Above the Ndunga Rapids the river
is pent up in a gusty, windy trough, between steep, sterile
slopes. Here, as Stanley remarks, Nature has begrudged life-
animal as well as vegetable-
-and he comments on the extreme
145. A CONGO CATARACT : SKETCH l;Y THE AUTHOR
unhealthiness of this region, subject as it is to constant chilly
winds. Though big game is seemingly absent, however, from
this unattractive region, the river-banks and cliffs are alive with
fishing-vultures and kites, and the rocks with cormorants and
darters. The somewhat sterile down-country away from the
river-banks abounds with snakes to a degree unusual in
Congoland — chiefly spitting cobras (Naja) and deadly tree-
cobras (Dendraspis), Causus vipers, and puff-adders.
From Manyanga to Stanley Pool there is a stretch of troubled
Congo about a hundred miles in length. Eastwards of Man-
yanga the gorge of the Congo is more picturesque, especially
along the Zinga Rapids. There is the magnificent cascade of
the Edwin Arnold or Luvubi stream, nearly opposite the native
settlement of Lutete. The waters of the Edwin Arnold River
2 8o GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
look in the distance like a white cloth laid at intervals over the
purple wooded hills as they come leaping in tremendous cas-
cades of two hundred feet at a time into the foaming Congo,
for the big river is lashed into white fury by a long succession
of the Zinga Falls.
The course of the Congo, from the days when the vast
Congo sea ceased overflowing towards Lake Chad across the
Mubangi watershed and pressed with its waters against the
western barrier, has simply deepened or been carved by the
1'"^'%
!»■»*«.
««4#*
146. THE SITE OF MANYANGA, CENTRAL CATARACT REGION
force of water right athwart the north-west and the south-east
trend of the earth-wrinkles, 1 and the river flows through a
1 The Belgian geographers style the belt of broken plateau — some two hundred
and fifty miles broad — through which the Congo has sawn its way, the " Serra do
Cristal," a name applied to the coast range by the Portuguese centuries ago. They
maintain that in the Congo basin this broad, corrugated tableland has a relative depres-
sion in the centre, about sixty miles in width, corresponding to the navigable stretch
of the Congo between Manyanga and Isangila. The Belgians speak of the Manyanga-
Stanley Pool highlands as the " chainon oriental des Monts du Cristal," and of the
Isangila-Boma hills as the "chainon occidental." M. A. J. Wauters in his Le relief
du Bassin du Congo has shown how there was once a small coastal river — the
" Banana" river — which rose in the 3,000-feet-high mountains of Zinga, beyond Man-
yanga. This stream was joined near its source by the Inkisi, then by the Kwilu,
and lastly near Matadi by an affluent of almost equal length, the Mpozo, coming
from the Zombo plateau. These all united to form a river which entered the sea
between Banana and Sharkpoint. Then the Congo Lake overflowed the first
rampart of the Bateke hills, filled to the brim the depression of Stanley Pool, and
beat against the Zinga mountains till it had breached their walls ; after which it
rushed down the narrow gorge of the " Banana river," and so carried its pent-up
waters to the Atlantic.
THE RIVER CONGO
281
crooked zigzag gorge nearly a thousand feet deep in places and
very narrow. To traverse this country by land is like going up
and down a series of switchback railways — up two thousand
feet, down fifteen hundred feet, up again another thousand, then
a drop of five hundred, then some gigantic climb to three
thousand, and down again another five hundred. The tribu-
taries of the Congo in this region flow almost at right angles to
the great river they are going to join, along deep valleys,
equally at right angles to the trough of the Congo. Many
r
■ ,/"'- ,/" iv <^../
f^iiSiitfclllllrl
^«M^M!
:
147. SCENERY IN THE CATARACT REGION OF THE CONGO (SOUTH OF THE RIVER)
of these valleys are filled with magnificent forest, which becomes
more and more of a luxuriant equatorial character as one
approaches Stanley Pool.
As regards this section of the river (Bentley remarks) the
water of the Congo is rich in iron. As it splashes up on the
rocks in the hot sun, the water evaporates and leaves a small
russet deposit, which gets burnt on to the stone. Another
splash, and a little more is left, and so on till a chocolate lacquer
is formed over the rocks, smooth and hard, often only one thirty-
second of an inch in thickness. The deposit so thoroughly
hides the character of the rocks that Stanley at one time
believed the hard quartzite-sandstone formation of the Kalulu
Falls west of Stanley Pool to be lava. The same remark has
282 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
been made by other travellers regarding the rock formations
cropping out here and there in the cataract region of the Congo.
They are referred to as "igneous," whereas they are merely
sandstone or other formations coated with an iron deposit.
There are said to be genuine evidences of igneous rock near
Isangila— alluded to by Bentley, Stanley, and one or two
Belgians — but there is so little other evidence of volcanic activity
in this part of West Africa that these too are probably only
stones coated with iron deposit.
^*-
Jill
148. NZEKE RAPIDS, THE LAST OF THE LIVINGSTONE FALLS, NEAR VIVI
Here is a description by Bentley of scenery in the Congo
Gorge near the Kalulu Falls : —
"The view at the junction of the Congo with the Nkalama (Luila)
stream was very beautiful, for a good stretch of river lay open ; the
wooded hills, rich in palm trees, the lighter tinted strips of jungle, the
gleaming white sandbanks, the black rocks, the swirling, raging, seething
water make a picture which arrests every traveller as it breaks into
view. . . . Just below this point are the Lady Alice Rapids. On either
side stretches a broad waste of huge boulders. The pebbles on the
beach are often twenty inches in diameter ; they lie strewn on a rocky
shore, but are covered at high flood. Between these two beaches of
giant pebbles is a narrow rift a mile long, through which the river
struggles with great velocity. . . . Here the Congo cannot be more than
two hundred yards wide."
THE RIVER CONGO 283
North-east of Manyanga there is a considerable cataract
known as Kimbala. Then, farther upstream, a long tumultuous
stretch of broken water, the Zinga and Muhona Falls. Above
these are the Lady Alice Rapids, and, finally, near Stanley
Pool, the series of Kalulu Falls. In all there are thirty-two
distinct cataracts in the Livingstone Falls of the Congo, ranging
from eight to thirty feet in abrupt descent, between the Ntamo
Falls, near Leopoldville (five miles west of Stanley Pool), and
the Nzeke Rapids, near the confluence of the Mpozo River and
the vicinity of Vivi — a distance of about two hundred and sixty
miles of water, of which seventy are navigable.
The altitude of the Congo above sea-level at its breaking
away from Stanley Pool (Ntamo) is about 915 feet; 1 at the
shore of Manyanga it is about 470 feet ; at Isangila, 400 feet ;
and on the beach at Matadi, an average 45 feet (ranging from
36 feet to 54 feet).
The Lower Congo from Stanley Pool to the sea is called
Njali by the Bateke ; Nzadi and Kwangu by the Bakongo ;
also, Mwanza in its estuary. Nowhere is it called " Congo." As
explained elsewhere, the word " Kongo " means "hunter," and
was the original name applied to a tribe on the plateau south of
the cataract region of the Lower Congo. When in 1877 the chief
of Rubunga, 600 miles east of Stanley Pool, uttered the magic
word " Kongo," he merely meant that the great river, followed
westward, would lead to the native kingdom of that name.
The end of November or beginning of December witnesses
the highest water in the Lower Congo from Stanley Pool to
Matadi. The fall in the cataract region begins in December
and the lowest levels are attained in July. Usually there is a rise
and fall of about nine feet in March-April, before extreme low
water is reached in July. The rise which with autumn fluctua-
tions is to culminate in early December begins usually in July.
Much the same seasons (with slight local variations) prevail over
the whole of the main Congo between Stanley Falls and Matadi.
At Matadi the extreme rise seems to be nineteen to twenty feet
over lowest level, and at Noki, nearer the sea, sixteen feet three
inches.
The rainfall at the mouth of the Congo is very variable,
but its maximum scarcely exceeds thirty-eight inches per
annum, and is sometimes as low as sixteen ; in the western part
of the cataract region, forty-two inches ; at Manyanga, fifty
inches ; and on Stanley Pool, fifty-five inches seem to be
1 Grenfell invariably made it 800 feet, and French estimates agree with him,
but the Belgian calculation of 915 feet appears on most official maps.
284 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
average statements. On the Zombo plateau, south of the
cataract Congo, the Rev. Thomas Lewis has recorded a year's
rainfall as reaching fifty-three inches.
The people along the banks of the cataract Congo belong
in the main to the Kongo stock, in language at any rate. On
the north bank round Boma they are of mixed Kakongo-
Mayombe stock. Then at Isangila succeed the Basundi (who
apparently once came from the lower Kwango), and at Man-
yanga the Babwendi. The Bateke — wholly dissimilar in
language and customs from the Kongo group — reach the north
ifewS5J&&fcV.»*J
149. VIEW OF CONGO IN THE CATARACT REGION NEAR STANLEY POOL
bank of the river in the cataract region, a little distance east
of the Kenka River. Here they call themselves Balali. The
Bakongo proper inhabit the north bank of the cataract Congo
east of Manyanga and west of the Kenka river ; and they
occupy the whole south bank of the river between Noki and
the vicinity of Stanley Pool. They are also of course (under
different tribal names) the natives of the plateaux lying between
the cataract Congo, the Kwango river, and the racial limits of
Angola.
The navigable Upper Congo commences at Leopoldville,
situated above a little bay about two miles east of the Ntamo
THE RIVER CONGO
285
cataracts. This is the point where the railway from Matadi has
its terminus. From Leopoldville to Stanleyville, at the foot of
the Stanley Falls, a distance of nine hundred and eighty miles,
navigation is uninterrupted all the year round. The govern-
ment wharf and the railway terminus are within two or three
hundred yards of the ledge of rocks over which the river makes
the first of a long series of drops on its way to Matadi. 1
Stanley Pool is an expanse of water and islands and sand-
banks some twenty
miles in length by " _. '
fourteen miles in .'..-•■■_3i.:iS?
breadth, but though
Kallina Point (al-
ways awkward be-
cause of the- strong
current) has been
passed on entering
it, the difficulties of
navigation are not
at an end; the
south - west corner
of the Pool bristles
with rocks till Kin-
shasa is well astern.
Then, as soon as the
rocks are passed,
one is in the midst
of anxieties caused
by the sandbanks
deposited as the
river spreads itself
out and becomes too
sluggish to hold the
sand any longer in
suspension. The complications due to the sandbanks would
not be so great if, like the rocks, they but stayed in the places
where one found them. The channel of this season may be dry
bank the next, and soon be covered with grass and scrub, but
only perhaps to disappear a little later at the rate of some
hundreds of cubic yards per minute as it is undermined by the
1 This paragraph and much of what follows is directly quoted from Grenfell. He
adds at this point that the total drop of the Congo between Ntamo and Matadi is
seven hundred feet, but this is on the assumption that the south end of Stanley Pool
is only eight hundred feet above sea-level. Belgian geographers disagree with
Grenfell and make this descent eight hundred and fifteen feet.
150. AN ISLAND OFF KINSHASA ON STANLEY POOL, 1 883
286 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
current, which has once more been deflected towards its previous
course. Sometimes a disappearing sandbank, while it goes to
build up an obstacle at some other point, leaves a positive
danger in the shape of a reef of rocks which it had previously-
very effectively masked.
The great island of Mbamu or Bamu which fills up all the
middle of Stanley Pool is, with its northern sandbanks, merely
the remains of a gigantic landslip which was caused by the
rain from above and the river beneath undermining the sand
formations of the low tableland overlooking the northern side
ilifcil
* ■.:"■■■■::■•■'?'■■■■ ■'- : •>••»,.:•..-' : / = /%» *5::?K''
151. DOVER CLIFFS, STANLEY POOL
of Stanley Pool. A vestige of this catastrophe is the gleaming
scaur of "Dover Cliffs." Before this landslip took place the
Congo flowed in a curved channel south of Bamu Island.
The large and small islands of the Pool are at present with-
out settled inhabitants, being only visited by parties of Bateke
and Bayanzi for the purpose of fish-curing. But according to
native tradition Bamu was thickly inhabited by Bateke-like
people down to some seventy years ago. 1 They were exter-
1 These are called by the Bayanzi " Bambari," which simply means in Lobobangi
" People of the River." Mbari, Bali (/, r, and d are interchangeable in negro
Africa) is a widespread vocable for river over west-central Africa underlying many
diverse forms of speech. Sometimes it is shortened to Ba-, Be-, or combined with
prefixes as Kibali, Mambare. A concurrent root word is Nzadi, nyari, shari, chadi;
ibare, iberre, ibele, are forms probably related to the root Bari.
THE RIVER CONGO 287
initiated by a determined attack on the part of the Bayanzi or
Babangi, soon after that race became predominant on the Congo
between Lulongo and Stanley Pool.
The shores of Stanley Pool — with the exception of a
few Bayanzi colonies on the south-east — are the domain of the
" Bateke " peoples, represented by the Balali (on the north),
Babali (on the south-east), and Ba-wumbu (on the south and
south-west). 1
At the eastern end of Stanley Pool, where the river leaves
the narrow channel and begins to expand, the greatest depth
is close up against the precipitous northern bank (where Stanley
obtained an average sounding of a hundred feet). Here no
doubt further landslips are being prepared which may some
day much affect the shape and the navigable channels of the
Stanley Pool.
Ascending the Congo from Stanley Pool eastwards, the
course of the river for a hundred and twenty-five miles is con-
fined between steep-faced hills on either side. Between left
and right bank the distance ranges from one to two miles,
generally less than one mile. The hills rise to eight or nine
hundred feet above the river for some distance from the Pool ;
but about a hundred miles east of this expansion these wooded
cliffs are seldom much more than half that height, are much less
steep, and begin to recede from the water's edge.
At a point eighty-five miles east of Stanley Pool the Kasai
joins the Congo, pouring its immense volume into it at a right
angle through a deeply cut chasm in the rocky hills some seven
hundred yards in width. Through this relatively narrow gap
of very deep water (generally known as the Kwa) steamers
have access to the series of waterways furnished by the Kasai
and its tributaries, amounting to not less than fifteen hundred
miles. When the Kasai is in flood the current in the centre
of the Kwa channel runs at from five to six miles an hour,
bringing down such an amount of brick-red water as greatly
to modify the dark, clear " tea " brown of the great Congo,
which gradually fuses with it on the way to Stanley Pool.
About forty miles north of the Kwa mouth the " Chenal," as
the Belgians call this constricted Congo, terminates ; the hills
recede and the river spreads itself out to a width of five miles.
The rocky ledges and reefs, the spurs sent out into the river by
the hills on both sides, which have been a continual menace
since leaving the Pool, now give place (as one ascends) to sand-
1 Among and to the east of the Ba-wumbu is a helot tribe of uncertain affinities
known as the Bamfuninga, Bamfunu, Bambundu.
288 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
banks ; and rocks are hardly seen again for five hundred miles.
This expansion continues northwards for thirty miles ; it is very
shallow, and its further end is characterized by many islands.
On the slightly rising ground at its northern extremity the
Bolobo villages are found, and just beyond, after narrowing to
less than two miles, the channel expands again to a width of
five or six miles— the width it practically maintains as far as
Lukolela, a distance of one hundred miles. Midway along this
reach the Alima pours its water into the Congo from the west,
and the delta it forms extends itself into the main stream till the
width becomes a little less than four miles. It is at this point
alone, throughout the length of this reach, that both banks of
***■ WWS ' ' ' 4»-Y .-x
•.jp-k**-
152. LAST RELICS OF THE ANCIENT CONGO PLATEAU— HILLS LINGERING ON
THE WESTERN BANK OF UPPER CONGO, NEAR BOLOBO
the river are in sight of each other, the long lines of islands
elsewhere obscuring the view. On the same side of the river,
and some thirty miles beyond the Alima, is the Likuala or Mai
Bosaka — a very slow-flowing stream ; and a few miles farther
on is the principal mouth of the Sanga, the important tributary
that furnishes an available waterway for steamers right up to
the south-eastern corner of the German Cameroons colony.
There is often a strong- backwater in the main Congo above
the Sanga delta when that river is coming down in force.
Near Bunga the Sanga flows with a velocity of one hundred
and seventy feet a minute ; but in December, when the upper
Sanga is falling fast, the full Congo forces the waters of the
lower Sanga upstream in an ebb which greatly raises the level
of the lower Sanga. The Sanga is best suited for navigation
in the month of April.
THE RIVER CONGO
289
The Lukolela narrows are some five miles in length, and are
formed by a range of low hills of ferruginous conglomerate,
though this ridge does not rise more than thirty or forty feet
above the river. Beyond the Butunu narrows the river widens
to seven miles, but in less than twenty-five miles the con-
glomerate ridges upon which Liranga and Ngombe are built
reduce the river once more to less than a couple of miles.
Liranga is at the
south-western
limit of the delta
formed by the
confluence of the
Mubangi with
the main stream,
and from this
point the French
boundary trends
northwards, fol-
lowing the "thal-
weg" of the Mu-
bangi instead of
that of the
Congo.
The water
rising in the
main Congo
drives back the
flood of the Mu-
bangi, and even
turns its current
up this stream
for a short dis-
tance. At such
times (as in De-
cember) the whole country up to the confluence with the Ngiri
is under water, even covering towns that are built fifteen feet
above ordinary level. The best month for exploring the
Ngiri is August. It is at its lowest in May. 1
Beyond the Liranga-Ngombe narrows there are one hundred
and seventy miles of the Congo's course before, at a point just
below Bangala, it is reduced to two and a half miles from bank
to bank. So persistently do the islands block the view, that
throughout the whole length of this long reach there are very
1 Grenfell visited the Ngiri affluent of the Mubangi in 1904.
1. — U
153. BORASSUS PALMS ON THE UPPER CONGO
2Q0 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
few places where one bank is observable from the other. The
Ruki, the Ikelemba, and the Lulongo rivers pour their inky
waters into this reach within the first forty miles north of the
Equator, and, after mingling with the Congo, very perceptibly
darken its hue. These important eastern tributaries furnish
more than one thousand miles of navigable waterway, but they
mostly traverse very low-lying country.
Between the Bangala narrows and Bopoto, where once more
the river is perceptibly reduced in width, there is a distance
of one hundred and seventy-five miles. Where this reach
includes the fifty-mile island of Nsumba the river widens to
154. VIEW ON THE UPPER CONGO, NEAR BOPOTO, TO SHOW ISLANDS
nine miles. The only important tributary received in this reach
is the Mongala, from the north-east, a river navigable for more
than three hundred miles, and traversing one of the best rubber-
producing regions of the Congo State. Nearly opposite the delta
of the Mongala River there opens out on the south bank the
remarkable Bukatulaka Channel, a southern loop of the Bangala-
Congo, enclosing the Congo's largest island, about seventy miles
long. 1
Bopoto is situated almost at the extreme north of the great
"Horseshoe bend" (in 2° 7' N. Lat.), and on the bank of the
first semblance of a hill for more than four hundred miles after
passing Lukolela. After so long a stretch of low, flat land, it
1 The exploration of the Bukatulaka Channel was completed by Grenfellj;in
March 1906 : his last piece of survey work.
22*20'
SO'
H
FN VER CONGO
at its
NORTHERNMOST BEND
from a. survey lay the
HEV. G. GREjSTFELL.
Scale of Miles.
5. IO
1 '1 1 1 p— i i=i h — i— J
Mimyama
_!_
'Yalulima.
22°20'
30
SO
To face p. 290
THE RIVER CONGO
291
is quite refreshing to see a hill, even though it is barely two
hundred feet in height ; to the natives, who have not previously
seen anything- bigger than an anthill, such an altitude is quite
impressive, and to the younger people even awe-inspiring.
Here one comes into contact with the felspathic bed-rock of the
central part of the continent, and for ten miles or so navigation
becomes a very serious matter, because of the dangers incident
upon the presence of reefs. It is the same rock over which the
Congo drops at Stanley Falls, and over which it drops again — a
thousand miles away — below Stanley Pool.
155. VIEW DOWN THE CONGO AT BOPOTO FROM A MISSION HOUSE
The next narrows are one hundred miles beyond Bopoto,
and about ten miles above the mouth of the Rubi, Loika, or
Itimbiri River; apparently they are caused by the deposits
brought down by that river. The Rubi is navigable by steamers
for one hundred and fifty miles, as far as the Rubi Falls, and
is the route by which the Congo Government transport leaves
the Congo for the Lado enclave on the Nile.
At a distance of one hundred and five miles beyond the
Rubi narrows, and just beyond the mouth of the Aruwimi,
the Congo is reduced to a mile in width, and beyond that point
largely loses its lacustrine characteristics. A change announces
itself on the southern bank some thirty miles before reaching
2Q2 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Basoko (the centre of administration at the mouth of the
Aruwimi River), by the reappearance of rocks and low hills.
Opposite Basoko the hills have become pretty continuous, and
rise to nearly two hundred feet in height. On the north bank
the high land does not commence till one is fifteen miles east
of the Aruwimi. Beyond that point it is nearly continuous up
to Stanley Falls. On the southern bank, however, the hills
soon give place to a narrow ridge of clay and gravel bank
slightly above flood-level, and with a wide extent of swampy
land in the interior.
The distance between Basoko and Stanley Falls is one
156. ON THE BANKS OF THE CONGO NEAR BWEMBA
hundred and thirty miles, but at a point a little less than
half-way, the Lomami, coming from the south, empties into the
Congo the waters it has gathered along a course of more than
seven hundred miles [it is navigable for more than two hundred
miles]. If the Congo is markedly less in size above the
Aruwimi, it is even more markedly reduced beyond the point
where it receives the Lomami, and the islands become very
few. At twenty miles beyond the Lomami the channel is once
more bounded by steep and often rocky banks about three-
quarters of a mile apart. During the low-water season the
navigation of the last twenty miles below Stanleyville becomes
somewhat dangerous, because of the reefs of rocks that at that
time lie so close to the surface. Boats drawing more than three
feet of water find this part of the river impracticable during the
THE RIVER CONGO 293
dead-low water that sometimes obtains at the autumnal equinox,
but happily this only lasts for a week or two, and at all other
times boats drawing from four to four and a half feet can, with
caution, navigate the whole of the nine hundred and eighty
miles from the Pool to the Stanley Falls.
Upon regarding a map of the Congo between the fifteenth
and twenty-fifth meridians, one remarks that the river follows a
course indicated by wide curves and comparatively straight
lines that contrast very markedly with the serpentine courses of
so many rivers. However, if the banks of the river are not
traced with the characteristic sharp curves of inland waters, the
157. THE BANKS OF THE CONGO AT YALEM13A, EAST OF THE
ARUWIMI CONFLUENCE
main volume of the river and the strong currents undoubtedly
follow very sinuous lines. Where the river-banks are compara-
tively close, say from three-quarters of a mile to one and a half
mile apart, the water setting over from one side to the other
creates below the point of deflection a counter-current, where
banks of sand and mud are deposited, and, upon impinging
upon the other side, the water is again deflected and another
counter-current set up, to be followed by the formation of other
banks. Thus the course of the main volume of water is very
tortuous, though, except at very low water, when the banks
show above the surface, the fact is apparent only to those who
are personally interested in navigating its course.
Where the river widens out, as it does in many places, to
more than five miles, and even to six, seven, or ten, and where
294 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
it meanders among borassus-covered islands and sandbanks, the
waters, instead of maintaining themselves at a depth of several
fathoms, are reduced to as many feet, or even less. Spread
over so wide an area they become sluggish, and much of the
sand with which they have been charged, picked up in the
higher regions by
the swifter stream,
is deposited in the
shape of a long
series of fantail
banks, over the
extended edo-es of
which the water
glides with its very
characteristic rip-
ple into the sud-
denly deepened
channel on the
downstream side ;
this, in many cases,
without affording a
passage for even a
shallow- draught
steamer.
If such a bank is
to be passed at all,
it is at the ex-
tremity, on the
opposite side from
which its formation
commenced, but
very often the
deeper water, to be
looked for between
the point of the
sandbank and the
shore, is so narrow, or is so overhung by trees, as to be im-
practicable, and then another channel has to be sought among
the islands. As there are nearly eighty islands between five
and ten miles in length, and fifty more than ten miles (one is
over seventy, another is fifty, 1 and two are more than thirty
miles long), getting out of one channel to another is sometimes
a serious contingency, involving a long detour.
1 Bukatulaka or Bokumbi, and Nsumba.
BORASSUS PALMS ON AN ISLAND OF THE
UPPER CONGO
THE RIVER CONGO
295
Reviewing the dangers of Congo navigation between Stanley
Falls and Stanley Pool, Grenfell writes thus (in 1901) : —
" Long reefs of rocks jutting out into the stream, and sometimes
occurring as isolated patches in the middle of the river, render the first
hundred and fifty miles or so of the Upper Congo beyond Leopoldville
particularly dangerous. They have so far, however, caused but_ two
total losses, though they involved very heavy expenditure for repairs to
many boats. Reefs projecting from the bank are generally indicated by
their shoreward ends presenting themselves to view, and by the ripple
they cause upon the surface of the water ; but isolated reefs and rocks
are sometimes found in the quiet places below prominent points, where
there is no current at all, or perhaps a slight counter-current; and these are
THE SNAGS THAT WRECK THE STEAMERS
the most dangerous of all the obstacles to Congo navigation. A forty-ton
steamer was wrecked on one of these projecting reefs, but her cargo and
much of her machinery was saved ; and the Courbet, sister craft of the
Faidherbe that was carried across the watershed dividing the Congo
from the Nile to figure in the ' Fashoda affair,' was lost by striking one
of these isolated masses of rock in comparatively still water. She
struck it with sufficient force to tear open several plates and to pass over
into deep water beyond, where, some four or five minutes later, she
sank, as H.M.S. Victoria sank, bow first, and her propeller still revolving
in the air as her stern disappeared from view.
" Next to the rocks in importance amongst the dangers of Congo
navigation one must rank the ' snags.' They cause as many accidents
as rocks, but happily not such serious ones. As the Congo and its
affluents with their more than four thousand islands furnish at least
twenty thousand miles of overhanging wooded banks, the number
296 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
of trees which fall annually into the water is very considerable. Many
of these are of greater specific gravity than water, and just lie where
they fall ; the lighter ones float for a while, but becoming waterlogged
they sink to the bottom. Those that sink in deep water are of no
menace ; but those that lie in such a position that when the river
falls they will come within a few feet of the surface are a constant
source of danger.
" Steamers drawing more than three feet of water incur greatly
increased risks, because snags and rocks below that depth give little or
no evidence on the surface of their existence below. During the low-
water season, steamers drawing more than four feet of water are
navigated with considerable difficulty, by reason of the innumerable
sandbanks which encumber the channels. This is especially the case on
downward journeys, much time being frequently lost in pushing or
in warping off. If the steamer draws three feet or less the crew can
generally solve the difficulty in a little while by jumping into the water
and pushing in the required direction, two or three of them being
occupied the meanwhile in searching for deeper water. Having found
it, they form into a line of living buoys, indicating the best route across
a shallow patch. If mere pushing is not enough, the anchors of shallow
boats can easily be carried out into four or five feet of water, and the
winch be brought into requisition for the work of warping off. But
when the boat draws four feet or more, anchors have to be carried out
by means of boats or canoes, and warping off becomes a specially
wearisome operation. Stern-wheelers can cope much more speedily
with the difficulties funished by sandbanks than is the case with screw-
propellers. If a stern-wheeler sits down on a sandbank it is mostly
a matter of keeping the engines going astern for a time, and the
violent wash caused by the paddles will excavate a channel ; the screw-
propeller, on the other hand, simply digs a deep hole immediately
under the stern, while at the same time it drives a lot of sand into the
stern-tube ' bushings,' and grinds the shaft and bearers away in a
fashion that is simply terrible from the engineer's point of view.
" The reason why downstream journeys are more seriously delayed
by sandbanks than those in the opposite direction is due to the fact that
the banks gradually shelve upwards till their highest ridges are reached
at the downstream ends ; and steamers, after being driven up the
sloping bank a certain distance by virtue of their own speed, are driven
on still further by the force of the descending current. On the other
hand, a steamer going upstream strikes a sandbank with its own proper
force reduced by that of the current instead of increased thereby, and,
as a sandbank generally presents a steep face on its downstream side,
the steamer either cuts through the crest or is pulled up sharp before
it is seriously embedded."
The altitude above sea-level of the Congo immediately
below Stanley Falls is computed by Grenfell at 1,380 feet. 1
At the mouth of the Rubi River the altitude of the Congo is
1 Some Belgian authorities cite the altitude of Stanleyville, the town above the
river bank, at 450 metres = 1,473 f eet: > perhaps an over-estimate.
$im*
\m: ; i
i&x:&y-
, : : ■:
■■'■,Bi^^
Jill 'J".
160. THE MISSION STEAMER "GOODWILL" ROW ON AT VAKUSU
(The figure on ihe upper deck to the right is the late Consul Pickersgill.)
THE RIVER CONGO 299
1,230 feet. The figures given by Grenfell for the height above
sea-level of the Congo entering Stanley Pool are about 820
feet, and at the exit from the Pool as approximating 800 feet.
The Belgian estimates are respectively about 935 feet and 915
feet. As they are connected with railway survey work they
are more likely to be correct ; but the discrepancy is re-
markable.
The rate at which the Congo current flows varies very
considerably ; it seems to depend somewhat upon the height
of the river, and to be modified also by the contour of the
channel. Generally speaking, the current is faster as one
approaches the higher reaches. The fastest currents registered,,
except at points where exceptionally accelerated, have been in
the neighbourhood of Basoko and beyond, and they have
ranged from 300 to 350 feet per minute. Near Bopoto, accord-
ing to season and location, the current ranges from 225 to 270
feet per minute ; lower down river the mean may be taken as
200 feet per minute. Some of the affluents flow at a slower
rate, and range from a speed of 70 to 170 feet. At the point
where the Kasai pours through its narrowed channel into the
Congo, the current is not less than 600 to 700 feet per minute
at the time of flood — about the same rate as that of the Congo
itself as it flows out of the Pool round Kallina Point. In
September the Congo runs into Lake Ntomba (at Ilebo) at
about a mile an hour.
On the Upper Congo each year is characterized by two
flood seasons, May and November, prolonged respectively in
some places to June and December. The maximum rise in
the upper reaches towards Stanley Falls is about eight feet at
both these dates. 1 At Stanley Pool the rise in May is not so
great, but in November and December it is nearly twice as
much. The maximum rise here would seem to be nine feet.
In January and February the water is falling everywhere
over the Congo system. The Mubangi has commenced to
fall in October, and by this time is near its minimum. At Stanley
Falls the water commences to fall early in December, but at
Stanley Pool the maximum is at times not reached till the close
of the month. During the month of January the fall is very
rapid, and by the end of the month the river is very low. In
April there is a very general rise, and the Rubi-Loika and the
Aruwimi approach their high-water marks. By May the
Congo waters are so much higher than those of the Mubangi
1 "At Stanley Falls, the low water times are in August, September, and February.
It is very high water in December." (Grenfell.)
3 oo GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
that there is a flow of Congo water into the Mubangi through
the Ibenga Channel and flowing northwards to o° 24/ south of
the Equator. The same thing occurs in the Ekinzi and Bwaiya
channels communicating with the Sanga ; they serve, according
to the relative heights of the waters of the Sanga and the
Congo, as outlets or inlets.
As there are two high-water seasons, so also there are two
seasons of low water, the second occurring in August and
September ; and at some points these are the months of the
lowest water of all the year. Along the further half of the
upper river the rising and falling of the water is more conspicuous
than further downstream, changes of two or three feet occurring
in a day or so without persisting. At Bolobo and the Pool the
rising and falling are most regular ; the rise seldom exceeds two
inches per day, and the fall is rarely more than three inches
in a similar period. This greater regularity is doubtless due
to the fact that the inundated plains, thousands of square miles
in extent, which are under water every season, act as storage
reservoirs, as Lake Ntomba also does, alternately taking and
giving the water as the river rises and falls. 1
At Stanley Falls in Lat. o° 30' N., January, June, and July
are practically dry months. There is heavy rain in March,
April, August, and September.
At Stanley Pool (Lat. 3 45' S.) the dry season is from May
or June to October. The heavy rains here fall in November,
December, February, and March. On the Equatorial Congo
there may be rain in any month, but the heaviest downpour is
in the spring and autumn. Very rarely there are inexplicable
local droughts, such as that at Coquilhatville (Equator station)
in 1895-6, which lasted for nine months without any rain, doing-
extraordinary damage to the forests.
The average annual rainfall at places like Mobeka, Bopoto,
and Basoko is not far short of one hundred inches. At Kwa-
mouth it is about sixty inches, and at Stanley Falls between
1 In December 1894 the flood on the Mubangi River had risen so that the Zongo
barrier was under water, and a steamer actually wound its way in and out amongst the
houses of the village. At Bolobo at the end of November in this year (1894) the water
was the highest on record. Ordinarily the maximum rise at Bolobo is between the
1st and 15th December.
The natives of Bangala say that that district is flooded every four or five years.
The river here is generally highest at the end of November.
At Stanley Pool the fall to the minimum level began and continued in February
and March. The level rose again early in April, and five or six feet in May and
June. The second minimum was reached in the middle of July. The big rise
commenced in August or September, continuing steadily up to December.
In November 1903 the Ikelemba River was higher than it had been for six years.
Green confervas in the water show that it is rising.
THE RIVER CONGO
301
eighty and ninety. These figures are only approximate. [The
Rev. R. V. Glennie recorded the rainfall of Bolobo for one year
1890. It was only fifty-six inches.]
in
The riverain peoples of the Upper Congo between Stanley
Pool and Stanley Falls may be catalogued as follows : —
Beginning on the west, the north and south banks are
occupied by sections of the Bateke people between Stanley Pool
and the Kwa-Kasai. On the north (or west) bank of the
Congo the Bateke extend further than on the south, and finally
merge into the Babangi stock in the vicinity of the Lefini River.
Otherwise they extend almost to the Kwango (so far as linguis-
l6l. THE VILLAGE OF LISALA, NEAR BOPOTO
tic relations are concerned). Indeed, in this respect they are
closely allied with the Bamfunu or Wambunu (Babundu) and
the Babuma of the lower Kwango and the Kwa-Kasai, and even
with the Bayaka of the Kwango valley and the tribes of the
lower Kasai and Kwilu. North of this outlet of the Kasai
system, the right bank is occupied by " Bayansi" overlying re-
lated antecedent tribes such as the Banunu, Bamoye, Batende,
Bakidi. [The Bakuti are perhaps pygmies.] On the north or
west bank of the Congo, the people of Bateke connections
seem to include the Bafuru at the back of the Babangi settlers.
The Baloi along the lower Mubangi and between that river and
the Congo are related in language to both the Babangi and the
Bangala. Balolo (Bankundu, Mongo) people extend their
range westwards to the Upper Congo at Coquilhatville, and
also to the shores of Lake Ntomba, and thence across the Ruki
and Lulongo rivers to the Lomami. North of this line they
302 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
extend quite near to the south bank of the main Congo. There
would seem to be (according to Grenfell) numerous indications
of the presence of pygmy races, locally known as Baizva, Baputu,
or Barumbi, along the south bank of the Congo and between the
Ikelemba, Chuapa, Maringa, and Lopori rivers. Lord Mount-
morres and Holman Bentley both noticed red pygmies [Bud]
on the eastern shores of Lake Ntomba. The Bangala people
[Bangala is a foreign nickname] on the banks of the Upper
Congo, above Lulanga, offer many points of resemblance with
the Bayanzi-Babangi in their physique, customs, and language.
They may be taken to include most of the riverain inhabitants
along the north bank as far as the mouth of the Rubi. Mainly
along the south bank, opposite Mobeka and Bopoto, but also
in the interior north of the main Congo, there are colonies or
sections of the Ngombe tribe. The name Ngombe is unsatis-
factory, since it may only mean " bush" or " interior" people :
but it represents a considerable though scattered group of
people to the north and south of the northern Congo with a
very distinct language.
East of the Rubi confluence with the Congo begin the Basoko
peoples, to whom are allied in language the Baunga of the
south bank, the natives of the lower Lomami (Topoke), the
Lokele, Bakusu and Bafoma 1 of either side of the Congo as far
east as the Lindi River and Stanley Falls. Immediately behind
the Bakele on the north river-bank are the Turumbu or
Barumbu, the Bangobango and Babali, extending respectively to
the Aruwimi and the Lindi-Chopo. Along the lower Lindi at
Balila are people related to the Bagenya of the Lualaba- Congo.
The Bamboli dwelling to the westward of the Bagenya are
connected with that tribe in language and possibly in origin.
On his earliest journeys in 1884-5 Grenfell remarked that
when he reached Stanley Falls a decided change came over the
Congo, if one was proceeding from the west eastwards. This
change made itself noticeable in the flora and in the more rocky
nature of the ground.
At various periods between 1885 and 1900 Grenfell visited
the vicinity of Stanley Falls and explored the Lindi River and
the Chopo, which enters the Lindi by an abrupt turn close to
the Lindi confluence with the Congo. The Chopo is remark-
able for its magnificent cascades where it descends abruptly
from the hills which now begin to bound the Congo on the east.
The Chopo Falls are at no great distance from Stanleyville, the
1 Written incorrectly on the ethnographical map as Batoma.
K
U
-A
W
t)
O
u
3
j
<
'A
of
w
>
o
en
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THE RIVER CONGO
305
State capital of this province, and from the large Roman
Catholic Mission of St. Gabriel.
The Baptist Missionary Society have long been settled at
a station called Yakusu or "Sargent" (founded originally by
Grenfell, and established by the Rev. W. H. White out of funds
furnished by Mr. Sargent, of Bristol). As the Chopo Falls can
be reached by water from the main Congo, they are frequently
a rendezvous
for pleasant
meetings and
picnics by the
missionaries of
the two de-
nominations
and the State
officials.
Prior to
1900 Grenfell
had ascended
the River Lindi
by steamer and
canoes and had
mapped it as
far to the north-
east as Kondo-
lele, where the
navigation of
the river is ab-
solutely inter-
rupted by catar-
acts. This
stream, how-
ever, has since
been traced by
Belgian explorers to its source, which is situated within scarcely
more than a day's walk from the west coast of Lake Albert
Edward. The general course of the Lindi River is not only
remarkably parallel (somewhat in miniature) to the main course
of the Aruwimi, but, except at its confluence with the Congo, is
all along separated from it by a short interval of land.
Grenfell remarked the absence of oil palms on the banks
of the Lindi, though there was abundance of pandanus (the
same species, no doubt, as is found in the rivers of Western
Toro, Uganda, and in the Ituri Forest).
1. — x
163. OFF YAKUSU BEACH
306 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
The Stanley Falls of the Lualaba-Congo consist of seven
distinct cataracts, extended over a curving stretch of fifty-six
miles in length. They are situated a few miles north of the
Equator. There are stretches of twenty-six and twenty-two
miles between the first two falls (reached from the west). The
fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh (counting from north to south) are
all close together. Stanleyville, the Falls Station, is on the north
or right bank of the Congo, immediately below the Falls, on an
island (practically) which is bounded on the north by a narrow
inlet, the northern mouth of which makes an excellent quiet
'$&imfa£&
■■ ■ -■".-'.
-T" /
Ji : te*^K
• 4 ■ *"
164. A CORNER OF STANLEY FALLS
haven for steamers. On the jhighj'south bank from which rise
red sandstone cliffs there are various commercial establishments.
When the last of the seven cataracts has been passed (the
journey from the western suburb of Stanleyville round the
Falls is now made by railway) the traveller reaches the im-
portant station of Ponthierville, named after a gallant Belgian
officer who died about thirteen years ago in warfare against the
Arabs. * The railway from Stanleyville was carried out by
the same group that so successfully built the line from Matadi
to Stanley Pool.
At Ponthierville navigation can be resumed. It is carried
on ordinarily by means of large canoes which are paddled by
THE RIVER CONGO
307
the river people native to this part of the Congo — the Baenya
or Bagenya. 1 In all this part of its course the general name
of the Congo is Lualaba, 2 a name first revealed to us by
Livingstone. In the middle of the Stanley Falls the Lualaba-
Congo (as seen by the traveller journeying up its course)
comes from almost due south, and this north-and-south course
is continuous from the fourth degree of S. Latitude, Above
this is a short bend running from south-east to north-west,
and higher up the direction is north and south, past the
junction with the Luapula and as far as the Lualaba- Lufira
confluence.
From Ponthierville southwards upstream, the Congo is
165. the; railway line along the lualaba-congo near ponthierville,
opposite the mouth of the lilu river
easily navigable as far as Kindu, a station which is practi-
cally identical with the Riba-Riba of the Arabs. On the way
the important affluent of the Lowa is passed, and further south
the Lulindi. Both the Lowa and the Lulindi are navigable for
a short distance eastwards from their confluence with the
Congo. On the Lowa, steamer navigation is stopped by the
rapids of Bangoka, near the junction of the Luvuto with
the Lowa. Beyond that there are long stretches of river
navigable by canoes. Grenfell seems in this way to have
penetrated some distance up the main Lowa and the equally
1 Called by Stanley the Wenya or Wagenya.
2 Apparently originating in the Nyangwe district. This is varied as Ruarowa,
Lualowa.
308 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
important Ozo River. On the Ozo (if I am correctly interpret-
ing notes on one of his maps) he reached the settlement of
Boko, which is within about a hundred miles of Lake Albert
Edward. Up the Lowa, which is the southern branch, he
penetrated as far as the mountain of Monkela.
Between this section of the Lualaba and the Lomami on
the west the land is very swampy, and the many marshes are
undoubtedly the remains of a former lake. Grenfell found the
altitude of the Lomami at S. Lat. i° 30' to be only 1,493 f eet -
Between the Lowa and the Lulindi on the south there is
IllllliS*"
166. SAW-MILLS ON THE RAILWAY BETWEEN STANLEY FALLS
AND PONTHIERVILLE
a considerable tract of marshy country, almost like an indefinite
lake. This may represent the Lake Ozo of Arab reports which
occasionally appeared on African maps in the 'seventies of the
last century and was confused in the minds of geographers
with the actual Lake Kivu. It is probable, however, that at
one time there was a large shallow lake in this region, com-
pletely separated from Lake Kivu, however, by a high mountain
range, but united across the Congo with the Lomami Lake.
Hereabouts is the country of Bulega, the people of which are
of some ethnological interest, as their language is an outlying
member of the Uganda -Tanganyika group, and sharply
defined from the more corrupt Bantu tongues of the northern
Congo basin.
THE RIVER CONGO
309
At Kindu, nearly opposite Riba-Riba, a new line of railway
is being constructed by the Belgians, which is to pass round
the disturbed waters of the Congo to the broad, lake-like river
about twenty miles north of the Lukuga affluent and thence
across the Congo to Tanganyika. Mr. Sutton Smith of the
Baptist Mission (Yakusu) writes in a recent report : —
" At the railway works at Kindu I was gratified to see the evident
desire on the part of officials to care for the well-being of the hundreds
of native employes, and was shown houses which are being erected for
their comfort. They intend to carry through the work as far as is
167. A TRAIN ON THE RAILWAY FROM STANLEY FALLS TO PONTHIERVILLE
humanly possible with a minimum of sickness. All I saw at work
looked strong, healthy, and happy. I was glad to find a Lokele youth
there responsible for some lads who were brick-making, one who worked
for me when building my house in 1904, and who attended our school.
The official who took me round gave me a good report of him quite
gratuitously, and readily consented to let me leave ten primers and ten
reading-books with him to help some of his friends to learn to read." 1
The Congo is still navigable in sections for canoes above Riba-
Riba, as far south as the cataracts of Kibombo and Chambo near
Nyangwe. The last-named rapids in the Buvinza country are
1 Grenfell accords warm praise to the conduct of the railway survey parties who
were to examine the line for a railway from Stanley Falls to Lake Albert Nyanza and
on to Lado. So well conducted has Belgian railway work been in the basin of the
Congo, generally under the supervision of Colonel Thys, that one is almost tempted
to suggest that the Congo difficulty should be solved by Belgium selecting Colonel
Thys as Governor-General over the whole of this region.
3io GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
practically impassable, but above these the Congo spreads out to
almost lake-like proportions on either side of Nyangwe. At
Jakoba (the Hinde Rapids) the narrow river flowing through
a deep gorge is quite unnavigable except by canoes in the flood
season.
Between Kasongo on the south and Stanley Falls on the
north, no hill of any great eminence approaches close to the
banks of the great river, which flows for the most part through
park-like or even treeless country, covered nowadays with
enormous rice-fields that have been started and carried on by
the Arabs. But above Kasongo the highlands approach nearer
and nearer to the river-banks, and in the Cameron Falls, begin-
ning at the Portes d'Enfer and Kongolo, the much-narrowed
Congo flows between two mountain ridges (Cleveland and
Dhanis), which are respectively 4,000 and 3,500 feet in altitude
above sea-level. A great spur of mountain country — the Bam-
bare Mountains — stretches in a north-westerly direction from the
western shores of Tanganyika to the vicinity of Nyangwe. This
hilly region is the original Manyema country, bounded on the
north by the River Elila and on the south by the Luama. A
high, broken plateau flanks the western coast of Tanganyika like
a huge rampart, and has been carved here and there by rivers and
rain into separate table-topped mountain ranges. Northwards
from the Manyema country these become more peak-like and
jagged, increasing in altitude till they attain heights possibly of
7,000 feet. They link up with the volcanic peaks of Mfumbiro
(Virunga), 1 and spread out like a fan as they approach the Sem-
liki River and Lake Albert Edward on the east, the upper Lindi
River on the north, and the Stanley Falls district on the west.
Much of this region north of the Elila goes by the name of
the Bulega country. This merges into Bukonjo, and further
north still into Bukumu. The people of Bukumu (known by
their neighbours as the Bakumu) are, in common with the
closely allied Wamanga, not a race speaking a Bantu language.
Bukonjo is a name applied by the present writer somewhat
vaguely to the splendid mountain country inhabited in the
greater part by the Bakonjo people, a race described in his
work on the Uganda Protectorate. The Bakonjo extend to the
north as far as the southern flanks of Ruwenzori and the
western part of the Toro kingdom. South of Bulega, between
the Lulindi and the Elila, is a district known as Bukombe.
1 From 11,000 to 14,600 feet in height. Discovered by Speke in 1861 ; sighted
by Stanley in 1875 ; definitely explored by Count Goetzen in 1893, and again by
Grogan and Sharpe in 1899, and by J. E. Moore (who ascended them) in 1900.
s
THE RIVER CONGO
3"
The present writer has had a glimpse of this magnificent
mountain region of Eastern Congoland from the north to the
west of the Semliki River. To him it seemed a veritable Land
of Beulah. It is by no means over-forested, and has many rich
Alpine pastures. It is therefore particularly well suited for the
rearing of cattle. This is the one region of the Congo Free State
which is legitimately open to white colonization. The native
inhabitants are not very numerous (owing to the cold in the upper
regions), the country is healthy, well watered, well wooded, and
IB " i
A CONGO STATE STATION BETWEEN STANLEY FALLS
AND PONTHIERVILLE
extremely fertile. For beauty of scenery it is reported to be one
of the most notable parts of Africa.
According to Grenfell, Nyangwe is at an altitude of
1,531 feet above sea-level. 1 He computes the altitude of
Kasongo, some thirty miles farther up the Congo, at thirty-nine
feet higher than Nyangwe. As the altitude of the river below
Stanley Falls may average 1,400 feet, there would thus be an
1 He visited this place on the 16th of May 1903. His estimate of altitudes here
as elsewhere differs considerably from the data given by Belgian explorers, but in
regard to Nyangwe and Stanley Falls it would seem as though Grenfell were more
nearly right. The Belgian altitude for Nyangwe is 550 metres = 1,803 feet, and
obviously refers to high land near the banks and not to the level of the river. The
Belgian altitude for Stanleyville is 1,473 feet as against Grenfell's 1,380 feet for the
altitude of the river-level below the last of the Stanley Falls. The altitude of the
Lomami at i° 30' S. is 1,493 f eet -
3 i2 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
approximate descent in level over this long stretch of river of
only 1 70-80 feet.
The Cameron Falls and the adjacent Hinde Rapids 1 con-
stitute one of the most troubled sections of the Lualaba-Congo.
Over a stretch of about fifty miles of river there are fifteen
cataracts. The scenery here is very grand in places : the lower
rocks like those of the Stanley- Pool -Manyanga Gorge, are
stained purple-brown, indian-red, or even black with the iron
in the water. In striking contrast are the bare islands and
towering cliffs of white quartz. The groves of fine trees and
flowering creepers add the grace of rich vegetation to fan-
tastic Claude-like landscapes. Above the southernmost of
**■
9S&®££mm*r.&&£BmmB^Mi
169. LUALABA-CONGO ABOVE STANLEY FALLS
these falls, at Kongolo, the Lualaba is once more almost lake-
like, and is navigable past the confluence of the Lukuga to
the point where the Luapula joins the Lualaba, and onwards,
upstream, to the south for another two hundred miles.
Grenfell's researches do not seem to have extended beyond
the northernmost of the Hinde Cataracts. For the convenience
of the reader, however, who may wish to obtain a general
apergu of the whole Congo basin, I will note the remaining
points of interest about the southern Congo region.
The Lukuga River (called Lumbiriji in its western course)
is the outlet of Lake Tanganyika by a quite recent afterthought
1 After Captain Sidney Hinde, who served the Congo Free State as a military
and medical officer in the campaign under Baron Dhanis against the Arabs, and who
with Consul Mohun (U.S.A.) was the first to survey this piece of the river. .
THE RIVER CONGO 313
of nature. The short, narrow canal (Mitwanzi) which connects
Tanganyika with the main Lukuga is not the principal branch
of the river which rises on the north-west of the Marungu
plateau. Tanganyika may have belonged once to the Nile
system [more probably to the Victoria Nyanza inland sea], and
have been cut off from Lake Albert Edward by the volcanic out-
burst which lifted up that portion of the Rift valley containing
Lake Kivu. The native legends about Tanganyika may indi-
cate that these changes occurred only a few thousand years ago.
Its Mitwanzi outlet is constantly choked with grass and weed.
., •■*■■ *
Mi
m
170. LUALABA-CONGO IN THE VICINITY OF NYANGWE
At Ankoro, in about S. Lat. 6° 12', the Luapula (Luvua)
unites with the Lualaba. Some geographical authorities prefer
to consider the Lualaba (which above the Luapula confluence is
sometimes known by the names of Kamulondo and Nzilo) as
the head-stream of the Congo. This may be the case so far as
volume of water is concerned, but certainly not as regards
length of course. The honour of being the extreme upper
Congo must be assigned to the Luapula, discovered or redis-
covered 1 by Livingstone in 1867. The ultimate source of the
Luapula is really the head-stream of the Chambezi River, which
1 The first intimation of the existence of this river is probably due to the
Portuguese explorers Monteiro and Gamitto in 1832.
314 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
rises a few miles south of the southern extremity of Tanganyika
(in British Central Africa) in about Lat. q° io' S. Other sources
of the Chambezi under the name of Chozi or Karungu rise
much further to the east, on the very edge of the Nyasa-
Tanganyika plateau. The source of the Karungu, which
perhaps for length should be really considered the upper Cham-
bezi River, is within about forty miles of the north end of Lake
Nyasa.
The Chambezi flows into the south-eastern part of Lake
Bangweulu, losing itself in the extensive marshes which mask
the southern end of that lake and make it very difficult to
define either in its limits or the exact course taken by the Lua-
pula where it issues from Bangweulu. It is hardly, however,
171. A STATE CANOE ON THE LUALABA-CONGO, BETWEEN PONTHIERVILLE
AND NYANGWE
unreasonable to consider the Chambezi as the upper Luapula,
and Lake Bangweulu as a vast backwater of the infant Congo.
Once the Luapula is clear of the marshy region of Bangweulu
(its altitude above sea-level where it issues from the lake is
about 3,675 feet), it makes a deep bend south, 1 and then curves
round abruptly west and north, flowing through a mountainous
country with numerous cataracts. The troubled water ends for
a time at the Johnston Falls, 2 from which point the Luapula is
navigable through a marshy region into Lake Mweru. The
1 The source of the southernmost affluent of the Luapula [and consequently the
southernmost point of the Congo basin] is placed (approximately) in S. Lat. 13 30'.
2 These falls were discovered by Sir Alfred Sharpe in 1892, and named after the
present writer, who at that time was administering British Central Africa. Sir Alfred
Sharpe also discovered the brackish Mweru Swamp to the east of the large lake.
This swamp overflows into the Kalungwizi River, and thus into the big Lake Mweru.
Livingstone discovered both Bangweulu and Mweru (1868 and 1867). Mweru was
first correctly surveyed and mapped by (Sir) Alfred Sharpe (1890-2), and -Bangweulu
by Captain Giraud (1883), and by Captain Weatherly (1894-7).
THE RIVER CONGO
3i5
Luapula where it leaves Lake Mweru (altitude above sea-level
about 3,000 feet) * takes sharp twists and turns, and flows
through a mountainous country. So far as it has been explored
it is navigable for about fifty miles above its junction with the
Lualaba. As its altitude at this point is only approximately
1,780 feet, it is obvious that over a course of about 180 miles
from the north end of Lake Mweru to its emergence into the
plain at Kiambi the Luapula descends 1,220 feet, in what must
be a perfect millrace.
173. ON LAKE BANGWEULU
The Lualaba, on the other hand, between Ankoro and Lake
Kasale has a slow current, and flows through a swampy region
beset with many lakes and pools. Here no doubt was once a
large lake, three or four times the size of Bangweulu. The
Lualaba would appear to be navigable for small steamers or at
any rate for canoes as far up its course as Kazemba, near the
Kambudi Falls. Above that again (where the river bears the
local name of Nzilo) there are many cataracts, usually known
as the Delcommune Falls, after their discoverer, A. Del-
1 The observations of Sharpe and others give to Lake Mweru an altitude above
sea-level of 3,116 feet ; but the Belgian observers reduce the altitude to 900 metres —
2,949 feet.
316 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
commune. The source of the Lualaba is double or treble. The
river rises from both eastern and western flanks of the moun-
tain range of Chafukuma, almost as far south as the 12 S. Lat.,
at an altitude of about 5,000 feet. The Lualaba receives
on the far south-west an important affluent known as the
Lubudi ; but it is also joined at Lake Kasale by a river — the
Lufira — almost as important in length of course and volume as
the Lualaba itself. There is in fact the most remarkable
reversed resemblance between the direction and course taken
by the Lualaba (Nzilo) and the Lufira, almost as though one
W t *WB££
173. JOHNSTON FALLS, LUAPULA RIVER
were the mirror of the other. Both rise ultimately within a few
miles of each other on the slopes of Mount Chafukuma.
Between the Lualaba and the Lufira is the important country
of Katanga, remarkable for its mineral wealth, and amongst
many other interesting features, for its cave-dwellers. A few
miles from the source of the Lualaba rises a cone-shaped hill
about 300 feet high, formed (according to Torday) entirely of
magnetic ore. On the slopes of this hill are cave-dwellers
belonging to the Basango tribe. Even a section of the
Alunda race has taken to living in caves to the west of the
Lualaba. On the banks of the Dikulue (the river which with
the Lufira practically encloses the district of Katanga proper)
the Bena Mutumba are cave-dwellers, and seem to have been
THE RIVER CONGO 317
so always. Paul Le Marinel calls these people the Bena
Kabombo, and states they are few in number, very wild, have
no huts inside caverns, and have only quite recently taken to
agriculture. Hitherto they were hunters pure and simple, and
they seem to have some affinities with the Bushman type in the
lofty Kunde-irungo (Kundelungu, Kwandelungu) Mountains,
which stretch between the Luapula and the Lufira. The
Balomotwa tribe live in passages of great depth hollowed out
in the mountain side, the entrances to which appear like tiny
gates of Egyptian temples, excavated in the perpendicular faces
of the red cliffs. 1
The south-eastern corner of the Congo Free State is in fact
a relatively lofty plateau from 2,500 to 3,000 feet above sea-
level, rising on every side to altitudes of 4,000 to 6,000 feet.
This plateau has been carved by water into ranges and clumps
of table-topped mountains following a general direction of S.W.
to N.E.
The boundary of the southern watershed of the Congo (and
the northern watershed of the Zambezi) is represented by a huge
earth-wrinkle running for the most part in an east and west
direction, almost at right angles to the courses of the rivers
which flow on either side of it to the north or south. This
region is much more like a chain of mountains than the broken
plateau to the north, but the altitudes are nowhere very re-
markable, the highest point being either Mount Kamea (a ridge
or massif from whose flanks rise the Lulua, Lubudi, or Zambezi)
or Mount Chafukuma. Either of these mountains may be
5,600 feet in altitude, more or less.
Livingstone was not far wrong instinctively when he thought
in the Chambezi, Bangweulu, and Tanganyika he had found
the Fountains of the Nile. The researches of M. Wauters,
based on Belgian and British explorations, show that the long,
diagonal range of the Mitumba mountains once limited the
Congo basin on the south-east. The Lubudi was the real
source of the Congo. The infant Lualaba and its lake Kinyata
united north-eastwards with the Juo lake of the Lufira, and this
again with Mweru and the mountain Luapula. The waters of
the Chambezi- Bangweulu-Luapula found their way into Tan-
ganyika at Mpala. And Tanganyika, before the blocking of
the Albertine Rift valley of the Virunga volcanoes and the
breach of the Mitwanzi-Lukuga gorge, sent its waters to the
Nile, at any rate to the vast inland sea of the Victoria Nyanza.
1 Dr. Cornet was the first to draw attention to these Balomotwa cave-dwellers, whom
he discovered in 1892. See page 726.
318 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
The country of Katanga has been the scene of operations
of a concessionnaire company, mainly British in its direction,
and is a land that has long been famous by report for its mineral
wealth. Katanga was heard of by the early Portuguese
explorers, Lacerda, the Pombeiros, Graca, Monteiro, and
Gamitto, at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the
nineteenth centuries. Livingstone in 1854 sent reports of it
from Arabs who had already reached the territories of the
Mwata Yanvo in 1853, and he obtained more precise informa-
tion as to this land of malachite, copper, and gold on his last
journeys between 1867 and 1873. Katanga was first explored
to any extent by the missionary F. S. Arnot in 1882-4. Its
southern borders were traversed and accurately mapped by
Capello and Ivens in 1884-5.
The Arabs must have reached Katanga at a relatively early
date in their Central African adventures, probably long before
they discovered and settled on the Lualaba. Apparently they
were drawn in this direction by the Bisa traders. This tribe of
the Babisa (as related by the present writer in other works on
Africa) played a very important part in the development of
South-Central Africa. Their own habitat lies to the south and
east of Lake Bangweulu ; but somewhere about the beginning
of the nineteenth century they had got into touch with the
Portuguese on the central Zambezi (being further influenced by
the passage through their territories of Portuguese expeditions),
and had begun to organise caravans of their own to proceed to
the Mocambique coast. By this trade with the Portuguese
they acquired guns, and thus became bold in their relations
with surrounding tribes. On their return journeys from the
coast to the interior they drew the Arabs back with them,
Arabs (of a very negroid type) having been settled on the east
and south-east coasts of Africa from time immemorial. Thus
the Arabs through the Bisa territories arrived in Katanga and
the lands of Lunda some twenty years before they had estab-
lished a direct overland route from Zanzibar to Tanganyika
and Tanganyika to the Upper Congo. 1
What attracted the attention of the Arabs more especially
in exploring Katanga was the presence of malachite. This
beautiful green stone was exported by them in large quantities
to Zanzibar.
Partly owing to Arab influence and guns, a negro adven-
turer, Msidi or Msiri, actually a native of the Western Unyam-
1 The Zanzibar Arabs reached Tabora (Unyamwezi) in 1830, and Ujiji (Tan-
ganyika) in 1840.
THE RIVER CONGO 319
wezi country, east of Tanganyika, whose father was a former
follower of the Arabs — established himself with a rabble of
Wanyamwezi fighting men as supreme chief over the Katanga
country about the years 1 866-1 870. 1 F. S. Arnot, a missionary
of the Plymouth Brethren, after his first voyage of discovery
in 1884, settled with a number of his colleagues at the court of
Msiri, and one of these missionaries, Crawford, became in some
way a secretary or adviser to Msiri, while C. A. Swan made
use of his opportunities to study and illustrate the local language,
which he styled Chiluba. Through the presence of these
English and Scottish missionaries in Katanga, the country had
become somewhat inclined towards a political connection with
the British at the time when there were rumours of a British
Protectorate over Nyasaland.
The subsequent history of this movement will be related in
another chapter, but the strong interest taken by the British in
the development of Katanga was to a certain extent recognized
by the King of the Belgians in granting far-reaching conces-
sions to an Anglo- Belgian Company, which is now endeavour-
ing to connect Katanga by a direct railway with the port of
Lobito Bay on the Atlantic coast of Angola.
West of Katanga and the watershed of the Lualaba-Lubudi,
the mountainous character of the country somewhat diminishes,
except for the well-marked ridge of the Zambezi-Congo water-
parting. The south-western limits of the Congo Free State
are the special domain of the Lulua and Kasai rivers, which
with their tributaries flow northwards in almost parallel direc-
tions through the lands of the former Lunda empire. The
mountainous character of the Katanga regions has to a great
extent preserved the pristine savagery of the land and of its in-
habitants ; but the Lunda territories (which extended at one
time along the course of the Luapula to Lakes Mweru and
Bangweulu) 2 have long been, as it were, trampled by man,
their forests abated, and a good deal of cultivation and even a
slightly European civilization introduced, long before the white
man came there to rule.
Between the Lulua, the Sankuru, and the Lomami is a
densely forested region which extends southwards to about
1 He called his kingdom, Garenganze.
2 At some period about one hundred and fifty years ago the Mwata Yanvo of
Lunda extended his conquests across the Luapula to Lake Mweru. On the upper
Luapula he established a viceroy (" Kazembe "), and a small section of the Lunda
people remained there in a Lunda kingdom of some strength until the British power
was established in these regions by Sir Alfred Sharpe in 1892-9.
3 2o GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Lat. 6°. To the west and south of this great Sankuru forest,
the Lunda influence, stretching- at one time from the south-west
coast of Tanganyika right across to the frontiers of Angola,
has not only dismantled the country of its woods, except in
the deep river valleys, but has considerably affected the wild
game. Across the Lunda belt, the Bantu civilization, coming
no doubt round the south end of Tanganyika from the direc-
tion of Uganda, early perfected hunting methods through the
use of iron weapons, and from the end of the eighteenth
century on-
wards, guns
and gunpowder
derived from
the Portuguese
assisted this
more enterpris-
ing people in
killing ele-
phants and all
the larger
mammals. The
Lunda coun-
tries, therefore,
are most disap-
pointing at the
present day
from the point
of view of the
big-game hun-
o o
ter. But within
the basin of the
Lualaba, below
its junction with the Luapula, and also between the Lualaba
and south-west Tanganyika (including all the lower course of
the Luapula), there still remains one of the finest big-game
countries in the world : swarms of antelopes, large herds of
buffalo (in spite of the devastations of the cattle plague twenty
years ago), rhinoceros, lion, zebra, and giraffe. The western
extension of many of these beasts is arrested by the mountainous
country which separates the basin of the Lualaba from that of
the Lomami and the Sankuru ; but the lion is found in the
basin of the Lulua-Kasai and extends its range in the Kasai
region as far north as 6° S. Lat. or even farther, where there
is no dense forest.
174. FEMALE OF THE RED FOREST BUFFALO
(EOS CAFFER NANUS)
From the forest region of S. Central Congoland. (Shot on one of
Grenfell's expeditions).
THE RIVER CONGO
321
South- Eastern Congoland is also much richer in obvious
bird life — especially in aquatic birds — than the western and
northern regions. The present writer in his work on British
Central Africa has dilated on the almost fabulous abundance of
storks, herons, flamingoes, pelicans, cranes, ibises, geese, and
ducks at the south end of Lake Tanganyika. Captain Hinde
describes the grassy flats along the lower Luapula as being
literally covered with flocks of spur-winged geese.
The rainfall of Southern Congoland and of the Lualaba-
Congo does not vary so much as in the northern and western
divisions of the Congo Free State. It probably amounts to an
annual average of seventy inches. Between Stanley Falls and
Nyangwe the an-
nual rainfall ranges
from about eighty
to seventy inches.
Between Nyangwe
and Lake Mweru
it is about seventy
inches. The rain-
fall in Katanga, on
the Nyasa - Tan -
ganyika plateau,
Bangweulu, and
Southern Congo-
land in general is
about sixty inches
per annum. But
between the Lomami, the Kasai, and the Lukenye River on
the north and the sixth degree of S. Latitude on the south —
in short, over the forest region of South-Central Congoland
— the rainfall is more like ninety inches per annum.
According to Grenfell, the Lualaba - Congo reaches its
greatest height between April and May and its lowest water
about September, with another considerable rise in December,
which begins to decrease in January.
The peoples 1 of this region may be enumerated as
1 In any enumeration of the peoples of Eastern Congoland the Arab element
must be taken into account. In the upper valley of the Aruwimi, between the Lindi
and the Lomami, the Swahili Arabs of Zanzibar and their Manyema allies have
Muhammadanized and disciplined such of the native population as they did not
exterminate.
Of the large, thriving townships above Stanleyville Lord Mountmorres writes :
" The scene might well be laid in Morocco. . . . Arab dress and general civilization."
The same writer gives a very encouraging description of the Arabized population
I. — Y
175. RED RIVER HOG FROM S. CENTRAL CONGOLAND
122 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
follows : On the upper Lindi and Chopo rivers, and on either
side of the Congo from Stanley Falls to the Maiko River (which
enters the Congo at Yamba-Yamba), even further south along
the course of the Congo up to Ponthierville, is found a very
interesting and
somewhat mysteri-
ous people, the Ba-
manga or Waman-
ga. There is only a
slight difference
between the speech
of the Bamanga
and the western-
most Bakumu, but
these names can-
not be regarded as
mere alternative
appellations for the
same people, as
Stapleton sup-
posed. The real
Bakumu to the
north-east and east
of the Bamanga
are dwarfish tribes
speaking very de-
based Bantu dia-
lects, whereas the
Bamanga and the
river Bakumu are —
as the Rev. W. H.
Stapleton was the first to discover — a tall, stalwart race non-
Bantu in language. The Bamanga are the only example of a
and of such Zanzibar Arabs that remain in the eastern regions of the Congo between
the Stanley Falls and the British and German frontiers. The chiefs and notables are
intelligent and well conducted. All read and write (in the Arabic character), and are
well versed in the Koran, of which, as of other Muhammadan devotional books,
there are always copies in each village. " I engaged several of the Arab chiefs I met
in conversation, and was astonished to find that they had a good rudimentary know-
ledge of general geography. . . . They were, in fact, in a way a civilized people. In
all the larger villages Muhammadan schools are established, attendance at which is
compulsory by all the children by order of the chiefs. . . . The men are all dressed
in the traditional Muhammadan robes of spotless cleanliness . . . most devout and
rigorous in their observance of their religion. . . . Their womenkind are neither
veiled nor cloistered, but are all well clothed in a simple robe of bright colours from
the shoulders to the feet, and are treated with a degree of respect and consideration
far ahead of that prevailing amongst Africans generally. The largest Arab village of
all that I came across was that in the neighbourhood of Avakubi."
3&$m
176. AN ARAB TRADER IN NORTH-EAST CONGOLAND
(Originally from Zanzibar.)
THE RIVER CONGO
323
non- Bantu people reaching the main course of the Congo,
thouo-h the allied Bondonga of the eastern Mon-
gala basin come very near. It is with these — the
Ndonga or Bondonga — that the Bamanga are
closest allied in speech. Other, but far more
distant affinities, lie in the direction of Mbuba-
Momvu, Manbettu, andMundu. But theBamanga-
Ndonga speech is extremely isolated. There are
indications in place names that it preceded the
Bantu in Eastern Equatorial Africa, but the
Bamanga themselves seem to be recent invaders
of the north-east Congo forest region, and to
have pushed down through and over Bantu-
speaking tribes till they reached the main Congo
between Stanley Falls and Ponthierville. They
extend at present a very short distance west of
the Congo. In common with the Bakumu and
Lokele they wear the " pelele " or lip-ring, like
the Balese of the Ituri forests.
As already mentioned, the interesting Bagenya
people were traced by Grenfell to as far north as
the lower Lindi, up to Balila. 1 They are the
river people all along the course of the Lualaba-
Congo, from Stanley Falls southwards to beyond
Nyangwe, where they are succeeded by the
Wangobelio (or Waujabilio). In origin and lan-
guage they seem to be allied to the Manyema.
A good deal of the course of the middle and
lower Lomami is occupied by peoples whose
speech connects them with the Balolo group of
central Congoland. The Batetela of the upper
Lomami are a warlike race related to the Man-
yema. Then, southwards, we come to the great
domain of the Basongo and Basonge, who appear
to belong linguistically to the same group as the
Bakuba : indeed the Basonge or "Zappo-zaps"
(as they are nicknamed) are almost identical with
the Bakuba.
Between the Lualaba-Congo below its junction
with the Lilu or Leopold River and the eastern
frontier of the State, there are collections of peoples speaking
1 Grenfell says they are also known as Bagengela and adds this note about
them (presumably ) : " Houses above Ponthierville are round huts with conical roofs.
The people wear their hair braided in fillets. They have dog-teeth collars, and kauri
ornaments on the leather flaps worn over the posterior."
177- a WOODEN
WHISTLE FROM
THE MANYEMA
COUNTRY
3 2 4 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
very pure Bantu languages, like the Balega, Balengola, Batembo,
and Bavinza. These are connected linguistically with the Ban-
konjo and Awa-runcli of the Uganda and German-East-Africa
frontiers. They seem to be a recent invasion from these regions.
Otherwise, the "pure Bantu" migration towards Congoland from
the original Bantu home on the White Nile and the Victoria
Nyanza seems to have skirted the eastern shore of Tanganyika,
possibly crossing it at certain points in canoes, and to have first
attacked the Congo basin from the south-east.
The Manyema, still occupying the region north of the
Luama River, have extended under the name of Bakusu across
to the Lomami, and seem to be connected linguistically with
AW m
178. EUTROPIUS GRENFELLI, A FISH OF THE UPPER CONGO
DISCOVERED BY GRENFELL
(This is a much smaller form than the extraordinary E, lattceps.')
the Batetela, the Bagenya, and even the Basoko and Lokele
tribes of the Aruwimi- Congo. The Baguha and Kabwari
people of north-west Tanganyika speak a somewhat distinctive
form of Bantu language, related equally to the Uganda family
and to the Luba group. The Barua, Tusango, Bambuli,
Balabwa, 1 and Batembo of the south-west coast of Tanganyika
and the regions between that lake and the upper Lomami are
connected, ling-uistically at any rate, with the Luba congeries of
people. So also are the Bakundu and Balomotwa of S.W.
Mweru, though physically these two last tribes are said to
suggest the incorporation of an old Bushman strain. The
Basanga of Katanga ; the Bakwesi, Balubende, and Basamba
J The leading language of this region, Kitabwa, has been profoundly studied by
Dr. Auguste Van Acker.
THE RIVER CONGO 325
of the mountainous regions of the Lubudi-Lualaba tableland
also belong to the Luba group. The Baramba, Kaponda, and
Balala of the south-eastern projection of the Congo basin are
related in language to the Ba-ila (Mashukulumbwe) of Northern
Zambezia, and through them with the far-reaching Tonga -
Subiya group of Central and South-Western Zambezia.
Finally, to complete the enumeration of the leading tribes along
the whole course of the Congo may be mentioned the Ba-bemba
(Ba-emba, Aw'emba) between the south-west extremity of
Tanganyika (Itawa) and the Chambezi ; the A-lunda of Eastern
Mweru, the Wa-kisinga of N. Bangweulu, the warlike Ba-husi
or Wa-usi of the upper Luapula, the Axva-bisa of the lower
Chambezi, and the Awa-wiwa, Awa-nyamivanga, A-mambwe,
and A-hmgu of the Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau and the head-
waters of the Chambezi.
CHAPTER XIV
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES
IN the autumn of 1902 Grenfell applied himself systemati-
cally to the exploration of the Aruwimi River. 1
The primary condition of Robert Arthington's dona-
tion had been that the Baptist Mission Society should link up
with some other kindred missionary society advancing from the
east, so that there might be a continuous chain of mission
stations from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean founded and
maintained on analogous principles. It was Grenfell's desire to
fulfil this idea by establishing three or four mission stations
along the Aruwimi-Ituri until he was within easy reach of the
westernmost post of the Church Missionary Society in the
province of Toro (Uganda). 2
As regards the exploration of the Aruwimi, he never of
course met with the slightest obstacle from the Belgian
authorities, but he was refused permission to acquire sites for
mission stations east of the northernmost Congo. It is scarcely
necessary to point out that in maintaining this refusal at
Brussels the supreme Government of the Congo State com-
mitted a breach of the Act of Berlin.
By November 1902 Grenfell had travelled eastwards as far
as Mawambi on the Aruwimi, that is to say, to within eighty
miles of the most western outpost of the Uganda Protectorate.
1 A reference has already been made in this book to the large bequest made to
the Baptist Missionary Society by Robert Arthington, the philanthropist of Leeds.
Mr. Arthington, it will be remembered, had practically started the whole Congo
Mission of this Society in 1877, although many other people subscribed to its funds
after he had furnished the means for its commencement.
It was however laid down in Mr. Arthington's will that his bequest should only
be applied to new work, to the founding ot new stations, the undertaking of new
explorations and new extensions from existing centres of work. The bequest to the
London Missionary Society is governed by the same conditions.
2 An alternative plan was to advance up the Lualaba-Congo to British Central
Africa and then join hands with the London Missionary Society. For this reason
Grenfell explored the great river as far as the Hinde Rapids in 1903 (?and 1905), as
related in the previous chapter.
326
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES 327
Here he stopped. A portion of his experiences are related
characteristically in a letter to Mr. A. H. Baynes, dated from
Yalemba, November 15th 1902 : —
" I returned to Yalemba yesterday (November 14th 1902), having
succeeded in reaching Mawambi on the last day of October. _ Mawambi
figures on some maps as Kilonga-Conga's, and is about eighty miles
west of the British frontier, and a few miles more from the newest
Church Missionary Society's outposts in Toro. As the only natives in
the neighbourhood of Mawambi are Wambote (the dwarfs), whom the
C.M.S. very distinctly regard as coming within the range of their
future operations, I count myself as having reached the C.M.S. sphere,
and as having passed beyond my range as a pioneer of the Baptist
Missionary Society. Mawambi, as in 1887 when H. M. Stanley visited
it, is a considerable settlement of Arabized Africans ; but from the
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179. THE POST OF AVAKUBI, LOOKING DOWN THE ARUWIMI RIVER, ACROSS BC.it J
THE ISLAND IN FRONT OF THE STATION
(It was near Avakubi that Grenfell wished to found a station.)
position of an independent power in this country, as it was in the time
of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, it has been subjected to and is
administered by a military post. The Arabs and their dependents
number two to three thousand, and their vocation as raiders and slave-
dealers having gone (they have practically depopulated the country of all
the people except the dwarfs), they have become auxiliaries of the
State, and subsist on their earnings as carriers of the loads required by
the Government at the south end of Lake Albert and the north end
of Lake Albert Edward at distances of twelve and ten marches
respectively."
[Here follow passages complaining of the refusal of the
Belgian authorities to allow the Baptists to acquire a
site for a mission station on the Aruwimi. Then succeeds a
report on the spread of education among the mission boys or
students, some of them natives of the Aruwimi district, who
had since gone out as teachers among their fellow-country-
men.]
328 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
"Bungudi Daniele and Disasi Libondu worked well, and created
quite a favourable impression among the natives. Alphabet sheets were
at first a mystery, and the magic-lantern slides a positive source of
terror ; but after a while the letters were understood as the keys to the
white man's stores of knowledge locked up in books, and the Scripture
History pictures on the lantern sheet became the texts for many an
attentively regarded lesson. ... I found as I came down the Aruwimi
that the good impression created by the Peace amongst the people had
made its way six or seven days' journey upstream. . . .
" Baluti and his two companions . . . have been able to tell the
people something of our message, and they now understand very
clearly what our object is. The children, however, as I find them
everywhere, are very anxious to learn to read. ' The Arab reads, the
white man reads,' and they feel they too must learn to read if they are
to escape the disadvantages of their present position. Education is
thus at quite a premium already, and the sooner we can put the Gospels
in their hands as class books, the sooner we shall have commenced
sowing the seed in the same m inner that has elsewhere been so widely
blest.
" With a view to getting to know something of the languages
spoken in the country through which I have passed, I have brought down
with me twelve youths of the three principal tribes, some of whom in
years to come we may hope will be messengers or will help others to be
messengers to their people. On the understanding that they were to
work half the day and go to school the other half, it seemed as though
I could have got any number I liked, and many were cruelly disappointed
because I could not take them — some of them absolutely cried ! As
soon as ever they have learnt one or other of our school languages I
trust we may be able to put them under the care of a brother mission-
ary who with linguistic instincts will be able to gather valuable vocabu-
laries, hints as to the construction of the languages. 1 They have already
commenced their schools under two teachers who have arrived at Bolobo
with us. One of these under my wife's guidance gives lessons to the
girls on board the Peace and the Bristol, and the other teaches these
twelve boys to whom I have referred, and a few other boys.
"You may be interested to hear that I joined the railway track of
the Great Lakes Railway, already pegged out by the engineers between
the Congo and the Nile, at a point about 120 miles west of the British
frontier, and followed it for 40 miles till I turned back at Mawambi.
This suggests many thoughts, and opens out wide possibilities for the
future ; but however wide these possibilities may become in the future,
we have, spread out before us, wide areas the circumstances of which
1 This work was undertaken by the late Rev. W. H. Stapleton (though far from com-
pleted at the time of his death), with results that are mentioned in this book. Grenfell
seems, in his notes, to indicate that along the lower Aruwimi, west and north of the
Basoko dialects, the leading language is "Ndaka" or " Mondaka," spoken between
the Aruwimi and Lulu by the following tribes : Bemberi, Bafwakiba, Bavwatende,
Babeki, Babesoa, Bavwalola, Babutambili, Bavwakoa, Bavwasei, Awamazoa, Basiri,
Babunda, Bameni, and Bavika. Surveying the country from Mawambi he notes :
"Wanandi people to the south" (compare this with my own notes on Banande in the
Uganda Protectorate), " Balese to the north of Mawambi, Walende (? Lendu) and
Bambisa to the north and east."
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THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES
33i
will remain unmodified, fields for our energies towards which we have
long been looking.
In a letter to a correspondent at the end of October 1902
Grenfell writes : —
" A week ago we were camped near the Nepoko River, and received
a visit from some dwarfs, some of the westernmost wanderers of this
more or less nomad tribe. They are queer little folk, and live very
largely by their wits, as well as by their nimbleness as hunters. Though
so much inferior in the matter of strength to the settled natives of the
country, they are much feared, because of their cunning, and for the
unfailing revenge which they take for every injury they sustain. [One of
the groups was evi-
dently a sort of min-
strel band, for after
they had gone through
their music and danc-
ing for our amusement
(and their profit) we
heard them later on
giving the same per-
formance in two other
villages on the oppo-
site side of the river.
The music was only
one degree less re-
markable than the
dancing. One of the
refrains was strikingly
pretty, consisting of a
sort of round, produc-
ing an effect like that
of beautifully toned 181. a chapel built by native mission boys
bells in the distance. at bolobo
The second effort was much less elaborate, consisting of two chords
only, and must have been copied from a bird's song in the woods. It
1 With regard to the attempts of Grenfell and Stapleton (and other Baptist
missionaries) to teach natives to give direct instruction to their fellow-countrymen,
Lord Mountmorres, in his Report on the " Congo Independent State" (Williams and
Norgate, 1906), writes an interesting passage. He describes how amongst the timid
savages between the Lomami and the Lualaba- Congo, "a small boy, a native pupil
of Mr. Stapleton's at Yakusu, has at last accomplished that which Government
officials and white missionaries alike have been powerless to achieve. He has
awakened in these people (the natives of the left bank of the Congo near Stanleyville)
a desire to improve themselves ; and daily I saw the boy inside one of the inclosures
sitting surrounded by its entire inhabitants, while he taught them, children and
adults alike, to read and reckon from first primers. It would be difficult to arrive at
the exact age of this little reformer, but I do not think he could have been more than
eight years old. It ought to be mentioned that it is no solitary instance of this kind
of thing, that I found another small boy, again a pupil of Mr. Stapleton's Baptist
mission, carrying knowledge and enlightenment in the same way to another village at
which I touched close to the mouth of the Lomami."
332 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
was decidedly effective. The third I hardly know how to describe —
it was a medley of hand-clacking (not clapping) and vocal tones that
resembled nothing else so much as a troop of tropical frogs, and when
I tell you that new-comers have mistaken the croaking of our frogs
for the chorus of a covey of ducks it will help you to realize that the
Congo frog is an as-
tonishing advance on
the home-bred variety
as a croaker !
" The dancing was
done by the head-man
of the party (they num-
bered about a dozen,
including two babies) ;
and it is even more
difficult to describe
than the music. A few
preliminary paces hav-
ing been made, Azim-
bambuli, the dancer,
received from the
hands of one of the
onlookers a burning
stick, just taken from
the fire. It was about
fifteen inches long, and
was more than three
inches thick. The
blazing end was nearly
ffii half the total length,
and was thoroughly
alight, the extreme end
being reduced to a
point in the fire — it
was a live pyramid of
fire. I expected when
T saw it placed in his
hands that he would
continue to dance till
its condition was con-
siderably modified; but
within twenty seconds,
and after looking at it as he grasped it in both hands in a most
quizzical manner from various points of view, and vigorously blow-
ing upon a certain portion of it, he suddenly applied his capacious
tongue to a surface which an instant before had been all aglow, and
we perceived a very considerable dark patch as the result. After
one or two sundry jumps and whirlings of the brand in the air, he
made a snap at the point of it with his teeth, and broke it off, allowing
it to fall still glowing on the floor. Some grimaces, rubbing of the
stomach for the sake of effect, was followed by a few more gyrations,
TWO BAMBUTU PYGMIES, AZIMBAMBULI AND
ABUMBUKU
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES 333
more applications of the capacious tongue and teeth, more blowing,
whirling of the stick, and dancing, and in less than three minutes the
firebrand was reduced to a dead, black stump.
" Of course such an exhibition greatly impressed the onlooker, but
I have no doubt that cunning Azimbambuli knew just the right
moments and place for applying tongue and teeth without much
personal discomfort. This much is certain, that he had barely finished
with stick No. 1 when No. 2 was handed to him, and I left him repeat-
ing the performance. . . . The dancer measured just four feet six and a
half inches, and his companion was half an inch less. One of the
women was a little under four feet. They are evidently in a very
degraded condition, but I am told that Azimbambuli's poor old blind
mother is carried from camp to camp in all their wanderings, so they
thus give pleasing evidence of belonging to the family after all ! You
know, I think, that the C.M.S. has already planned for a mission among
these interesting little folk, and I am therefore getting to the limits of our
future work, if I have not already reached them. If, however, the rail-
way between the Congo and the Nile should be completed, it may become
easier to reach the Dwarf country from the west than from the east. . . ."
It is only fair to say that in 1902 Grenfell found the adminis-
tration of native affairs in the Aruwimi district greatly improved
as compared to that of 1894 (for example): in which year he
visited the lower Aruwimi and noted grave abuses of authority,
chiefly by persons representing recently founded concessionnaire
companies. He had been given all possible facilities for visiting
this and other regions by Major Malfeyt, the representative of
the Congo Independent State (Inspecteur d'Etat) at Stanleyville.
On his return from his 1902 journey he addressed a letter to
Major Malfeyt, of which some extracts may be interesting : —
" Yambuya, Aruwimi,
,. n/r „ ,, ,, " 12th November 1902.
" M. le Major Malfeyt, v
" Inspecteur d'Etat, etc. etc., Stanleyville.
" Monsieur :
" I have just returned to this place after a journey to Mawambi.
I take this the first opportunity of thanking you for the facilities
accorded to me by your kind letters of introduction. You will be glad
to know that I have made the journey under the best possible condi-
tions, and that the transport system, which has been organized, was
working with such smoothness that I found food and transport and a
good rest-house awaiting me at the end of every stage. These matters
in no instance caused me the least anxiety. By the officers and agents
of the State I have been everywhere welcomed in the most cordial
manner, and especially by M. le Capitaine (name illegible) and Lieu-
tenant Siffert, to whom when the occasion serves I hope you will make
known my high appreciation of the kindness and consideration they
manifested on my behalf, as well as my grateful thanks for the help
they rendered in the carrying out of my plans.
334 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
"It was a source of sincere pleasure to me to see the colonies of the
time-expired men 1 at Banalya. Their neat, well-kept houses and the
air of contentment that reigned were most inspiring. To find these
communities so advanced on the high road to civilization in this far-
away place, right in the centre of the continent, is a most important and
encouraging fact. Another very gratifying fact I note is the evidence
which crossed my path as to the regime of the civil law having been
extended as far as the Nepoko, and this in a country which still so
plainly bears the marks of the Arab domination a few years ago. That
the upper Ituri does not yet enjoy the same advantages is easily under-
stood by those who know the circumstances ; but the railway and the
183. THE VILLAGE OF THE BANALYA COLONY OF TIME-EXPIRED SOLDIERS
OF THE CONGO STATE
developments which are being undertaken will soon result, I doubt not,
in the passing away of the old order of things, and in this part of the
province also being brought within the range of the Civil Code and its
attendant benefits. . . .
" My journey has been a most instructive and a very pleasant one —
the only sad feature of it being the district east of the Lenda River,
where the complete absence of population and the abundant clearings
told most plainly of the devastation resulting from the old-time Arab
domination, and called up a picture of the sorrows it must have inflicted
over this wide district. . . .
" With very sincere respect,
" Faithfully yours,
"George Grenfell."
1 This is interesting testimony, as several years previously the Congo State
system of establishing these soldier colonies was severely and — as it turns out — un-
fairly criticized. Like Grenfell, Lord Mountmorres and Mrs. William Forfeitt, B.M.S.,
have reported favourably on the villages formed by the retired soldiers of the Slate,
"on their spotless cleanliness, the extent and excellence of their plantations." (H. H. J.)
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES
335
I will now attempt to give a description of the Northern
tributaries of the Congo from notes collected by Grenfell,
William Forfeitt, Torday, and various Belgian authorities.
The Aruwimi, under the names of Shari, Abumbi, Ituri,
Luwere, Biyere, Mbinga, rises with many contributory streams
on the southern slopes of a knot of mountains named after
Speke, Emin, Schweinfurth, and Junker, about thirty miles west
of the north end of Albert Nyanza. Near Mawambi it receives
the Ibina, which comes from the heights above the Semliki
valley (behind Fort Mbeni) ; and a little lower down, the Epulu
( I hur u), which
flows through the T,fM< liti8&tii#€b
Momvu country.
At Bomili below
the important sta-
tion of Avakubi is
the confluence of
the Aruwimi and
the Nepoko (a
river first dis-
covered by Dr.
Junker, which is
the southern boun-
dary of the Mafi-
bettu country).
The only other
tributary of importance is the Lulu, which enters the Aruwimi
a few miles from its confluence with the Congo.
The Lulu is of political importance, because it is navigable
for canoes for a considerable distance into the dense forest.
The Aruwimi is navigable for steamers as far upstream as
Yambuya (about sixty miles), beyond which falls occur at in-
tervals along the whole course of this mighty stream. There
are stretches of river between the falls and rapids which are
navigated by canoes, but the Aruwimi above Avakubi is a
mountain torrent in many places.
In 1894 Grenfell noted that July, August, and September
were the seasons of heaviest rain along the lower Aruwimi,
but that the great rise of the river did not occur till October.
There is a dry season of only three months at Yambuya —
mid - December to mid - March. The current of the lower
Aruwimi often varies on either side from a velocity of 1 50 feet
per minute to 275 feet. The colour of the water is a clear
184. ARUWIMI RIVER ABOVE THE LOWEST^RAPIDS
336 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
sepia-brown. The river is lowest in February and December
and highest in April and October.
Between the Aruwimi-Ituri and the Epulu (east of the
hill gorge of Avakubi) is a broad, pear-shaped plain that
was once possibly an upland lake of considerable size, the
outlet of which sawed its way through the deep gorge in
the hills at whose western end — facing the Nepoko plain —
Avakubi is situated. Beyond its junction with the Nepoko
the Aruwimi has entered the undulating plains and swampy
forest of Central Congoland. The mountain region in which
the Aruwimi, Nepoko, Bomokandi, and Wele-Kibali are born
extends a long tapering finger south-westwards to the main
^■'i.'-U-ifU'"': ' -''.i .-' ' : ' 1 " "'-= Ka, \ ''%:.■!
• v - t ._,
185. PANGO RAPIDS OF ARUWIMI
Congo at Stanley Falls. It reaches its highest altitudes, how-
ever, along the edge of the Albert Edward-Semliki-Albert
Nyanza rift valley and near the sources of the western Ituri
(Kilo Mountains, where the gold is found), and perhaps south
of the upper Lindi River. Near Lake Albert and to the
west of the upper Semliki this splendid mountain country
attains altitudes of from six to eight thousand feet. Elsewhere
the heights above sea-level scarcely exceed five thousand
feet, and up to this limit the country (except for human inter-
vention) is covered with dense forest. Owing probably to this
excessive growth of vegetation under a rainfall which must be
not far short of one hundred inches per annum, the basin of
the Aruwimi, above Banalya, is very unhealthy for Europeans
and foreign negroes. Black-water fever is prevalent, together
with severe anaemia. Health, however, is quickly restored by
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES 337
transference to the grassy uplands overlooking Lake Albert or
the Semliki valley, where the forest is abated above six thou-
sand feet and temperate, drier conditions prevail.
The Rubi River, 1 which enters the lake-like Congo near
Bumba, where the mighty stream hitherto coming from the
south begins to turn definitely westwards, was one of Grenfell's
earliest discoveries in December 1884. His description of its
lower course has been given on page 123. He adds at a later
date that the rainy season at the mouth of the Loika (as he
prefers to call the Rubi) is heaviest in the months of February,
March, October, November, and December, and that the river-
level is highest in October and lowest in January.
The main stream of the Rubi rises close to the Aruwimi
and the affluents of the Wele, in the hilly country of Mabode.
In the basin of the upper Rubi and of its affluent the Likati
the rocks seem to be slate. The natives grind these into a grey
powder with which to colour their skins. The Mongala 2 River
was one of the very few Congo affluents not explored by
Grenfell, who only visited its delta. The upper Mongala
is made up of four important streams: the Dua ("Black"
water), the Ebola ("White" water), the Likema-Bwila, and
the Ibanza River. All of them rise quite close to the Wele-
Mubangi from the low range of hills (about five hundred feet
above local levels — some seventeen hundred to two thousand
feet in total altitude) which borders the middle course of this
river.
The Mongala is only navigable by steamers for about fifty
miles above the Congo confluence. Navigation is then stopped
by the Likini-Businga rapids and falls. Beyond these cataracts,
however, vessels of shallow draught can penetrate as far up the
main stream (Ebola) as Gongo, which is barely sixty miles from
the middle Mubangi. The Dua River can be navigated in
canoes for some hundred and twenty miles upstream to the
east. But for the narrow neck of highland behind Bopoto, this
river might almost unite near its source with the Chimbi
affluent of the Rubi. The sluggish Motima River, which
enters the Mongala just below the Likini rapids, flows nearly
1 This river is also known as the Lubi, Loika, and Itimbiri. Grenfell gives the
altitude above sea-level of the Rubi confluence with the Congo as 1,230 feet, and the
volume of the Rubi at its mouth as 30,000 cubic feet per second.
2 The Mongala as far as the Mungwadi rapids was explored in 1887 by Captain
Baert (a Belgian) and Mr. J. R. Werner (an Englishman). The last-named explorer
was the brother of Miss A. Werner, the well-known writer on African languages and
folklore. In its upper waters the main Mongala River is known as the Ebola, a term
said to mean "White." "Mongala" is a name of uncertain etymology and local use,
perhaps connected with the equally incorrect " Bangala."
338 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
parallel with the main Congo, and perhaps at flood-time turns the
Bwela country J into a huge island. Then, also, during the flood
season, which here would be the months of October and May,
the Mongala in its lower course almost unites with the eastern
branches of the Ngiri River, and thus with the lower Mubangi.
The actual frontage of the Congo along the Bangala shore
(Nouvelle Anvers to Mobeka) is about one to two hundred feet
above flood-mark, but behind this strip of dry land there are
lakelets, swampy forests, marshes, and narrow meandering
streams— another " vegetable Venice," in fact : redeemed from
**w* *>j-'\»S*,S? JJ
&-C^a*--
186. A VILLAGE OF THE BWELA COUNTRY BEHIND BOPOTO
dismality by the splendid forest which for three or four months
out of the twelve rises directly from the stagnant water.
This scenery is well described by Father Heymans in an
account of a visit to the Ndobo country, three days' river jour-
ney from Nouvelle Anvers by the Congo and by a narrow
stream called the Moeko (" no more than a rivulet, which
trunks of trees, torn up by hurricanes, often render unnavi-
gable ") : —
" There is no undergrowth [in this swampy forest region of
Ndobo], but huge venerable trees stand erect like so many columns,
1 On the Congo coast of which are the flourishing Baptist mission stations of
Bopoto, etc.
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES
339
whose sturdy stem is almost hidden by the twining of climbing
parasites, among which shine in many-coloured clusters, innumerable
orchids.
"All these forest giants stand in the water. Not a spot where the
foot can be put to the ground. Our boat glides under the leafy vault,
sparing us the meanderings of the river and the impetuosity of the
current. This navigation over flood waters does not any the less remain
unpleasant. Still it constitutes the only means ol reaching Ndobo.
When the waters are low, as I have said already, communication is very
difficult, if not impossible. This is why these people, although they
supply the State with provisions, live isolated, devoted only to their own
187. A VILLAGE OF THE INTERIOR BEHIND BOPOTO
(Note ant-hill in the background with man standing on top.)
instincts, and remain like their ancestors, slave dealers and cannibals.
Hitherto only two whites have crossed the central market of this village.
At five or six leagues from this centre the first plantations appear.
They are composed of palm trees, bananas, and manioc, as well as a
species of spinach. The country being completely submerged when
the high waters supervene, these plantations need for their creation and
preservation an enormous and continual labour. They form artificial
islets whose superficial area may reach to as much as twenty acres.
The dyke which protects them against the floods is made of small sticks
bound close together, three feet high, fixed upright in the slimy ground,
the long line of which is supported by the trunks of the banana trees.
This dyke, in spite of careful labour, would not suffice to preserve the
islets from inundation, if when the waters sank, search were not made
in the beds of the dried streams for a supply of mud which is placed
34Q GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
above the dyke in order to raise the soil of the islet and supply a rich
manure for the plantations.
" Every freeman possesses an islet in the midst of which stand his
sheds and house. This last is not wanting in outward appearance. The
base, which is quadrangular and formed of great stakes placed side by
side, rises almost three feet from the ground, and supports a high roof
of two sides and covered with palm leaves. The door is about two feet
four inches high, so that anyone who seeks to enter is obliged to go
down on his hands and knees. Inside is a profound darkness ; mats
hang on the upright walls and along the roof in order to ensure the
inhabitants against rain ; with the same object the ground is covered
with round logs laid side by side.
" On the islets in question the most common produce-bearing tree
is the oil palm (Elais), which gives a double revenue : half of these trees
being kept to produce palm wine, the other half providing the nuts from
which is extracted palm oil. The wine is scarcely ever used for com-
mercial purposes, it is consumed on the spot ; but as for the oil, which
is so celebrated, all the dwellers by the big river come to provide them-
selves with it at Ndobo. In return for the delivery of a slave, thirty
jars are given.
" The village itself is only a more compact succession of artificial
islets. Thus one sees here more numerous houses on a more restricted
space, and it is here that we must go to study more completely the
mode o.f life of this curious people."
North of the Ngiri River the country is of a less swampy
nature, of a slightly higher altitude, and a more varied surface.
Here begins and stretches north-eastwards towards the middle
Mubangi the splendidly fertile territory of the Banza people,
" a rolling, down-like country, which but for the industrious
agriculture of the Banza would be one vast forest " [the slate
formations of the upper Mongala seem to extend westwards
across the Banza district].
Except where the vigorous, agricultural, non-Bantu races of
the Mubangi basin have attacked the woodland and turned it
into villages and plantations, there is much dense forest right
across this region from the lower Mubangi to the Rubi,
Aruwimi, Nepoko, and upper Wele. This forest extends east-
wards to the Semliki River, and in places overlaps the Congo-
Nile water-parting. Indeed, as regards its special and peculiar
fauna, it even reaches — in isolated patches — to the north-
eastward coast-lands of the Victoria Nyanza and to the slopes
of Mount Kenya. Westwards, across the Mubangi and Sanga
rivers, it apparently connects with the dense primeval forests of
French Congo and the southern Cameroons ; and, so far as
peculiarities of fauna are concerned, seems even to be con-
tinued north and west (with many breaks) across the Niger
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES
34i
delta and along the West Coast of Africa to Liberia, Sierra
Leone, and Portuguese Guinea. Measured from north to
south, this belt of forest with its remarkable fauna and flora is
often not more than a hundred miles in width.
It has a peculiar fauna of its own, some members of which
are not entirely confined to its limits, but extend their range to
the north or south, yet are most concentrated within its borders.
Creatures (so far as we know) almost entirely confined to this
special forest belt — in isolated areas, or throughout the whole
length from west to east
— are the Gorilla, most
species of Chimpanzi,
several kinds of Cercopi-
thecus monkey, a large,
water -loving Insectivore
[Potamogale), the Golden
Cat (Felis auratd)} the
Bong-o or Broad - horned
Tragelaph (Boocercus), the
Water Chevrotain (Dor-
catkerium), the Flying
Anomalure (not a flying
squirrel, though very like
one superficially), one or
two species of Tree Hyrax,
the Okapi, and the big,
black Forest Pig {Hy-
lochoerus), only recently
discovered. 2 Besides these
peculiar mammals there
are some species or genera
of birds almost entirely
confined to this narrow forest zone, though occasionally stray-
1 Vide Mr. R. J. Pocock's paper, Proceedings Zoological Society, 1907. He has
revived Temminck's specific name in lieu of the alternative chrysothrix or celidogaster.
2 As regards the Okapi, this primitive Giraffine type was first definitely heard of
by the writer of this book when he entered the Ituri Forest in 1900. Through the
kindness of Lieutenant Meura and Mr. Eriksson of the Congo State Government,
he was supplied with a skin and skulls, besides the imperfect specimens of skin he
had already collected. Grenfell ' rediscovered ' it in the Babali country, south of the
Aruwimi, in 1902, and wrote of it in his survey notes as the Ndumba. The range of
the Okapi has since been greatly extended by the researches of Captain Boyd
Alexander, Major Powell Cotton, the Belgian officials, Le'oni, Jadoul, Siffert, Auzelius,
Arnold, Mertens, van Hulde, Sillye, and the Swiss Dr. David (vide chapter xxxm).
The black Forest Pig (Hylochoertis) was first of all alleged by Sir Henry Stanley
and by the present writer to exist in the Ituri Forest. Stanley saw it ; Mr. Doggett
and I merely collected native reports. Grenfell reported its existence in the Aruwimi
forests under the name of Nsulu, in 1902. Curiously enough, the animal in its eastern
(From a
THE BONGO OR BROAD-HORNED
TRAGELAPH
photograph of a specimen killed on the N.E.
ph
Congo.) 'I he brightly contrasted red and white-striped
skin of this splendid beast is much in favour amongst the
natives of the Forest region for bandoliers, girdles, etc.,
vieing in their favour with that of the Okapi.
342 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
ing southwards into the main Congo basin. Amongst these
is the remarkable and primitive type of Guinea-fowl, Phasidus
niger — -a blackish-brown bird without white spots, and with
a bare head and neck, yellow and orange. Until a few
wmms~i%
ISO. THE FINEST SPECIMEN EXTANT OF A MALE OKAPI
Set up in the Paris Natural History Museum : from the neighbourhood of Avakubi.
species was actually brought to light, so far as specimens were concerned, by
Mr. C. W. Hobley and Captain Meinerzhagen, after whom the first described species
was named. Almost before Captain Meinerzhagen obtained his specimens from
Mount Kenya, the Congo State authorities had sent home remarkable examples from
the Ituri Forest to be studied in Belgium. This type has since been named Hylo-
choerus itwiensis by Professor Paul Matschie. Then followed the interesting dis-
covery of Baron Maurice de Rothschild and M. H. Neuville, who found this Forest
Pig existing in the Nandi forests, north-east of the Victoria Nyanza, and even in
forests north of Lake Baringo. Simultaneously proof of its existence in the forests of
the southern Cameroons was transmitted by Mr. G. L. Bates, who has done so much to
illustrate the zoology of that region. Mr. Bates's specimen was found to be distinct
from the East and Central African types and was named Hylochoerus rimator. It is
more highly specialized. The existence of this Forest Pig has been credibly reported
from eastern Liberia by Mr. Maitland Pye-Smith, and the Dutch geographer Dapper
gives a description of a black pig found in western Liberia in the early seventeenth
century which seems very likely to be the Hylochoerus. Junker in 1891 hints at the
existence " of a third species of pig, other than the Wart-hog and Red-river-hog," in
the Bari country west of Lado.
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES
343
years ago the range of this bird was thought to be limited
to the Gaboon (French Congo), where it was discovered
by Paul Du Chaillu, but it has recently been obtained by
Belgians in the Ituri Forest, more than a thousand miles to
the east. A somewhat allied form {Agelastes) is found in the
forests of the Gold Coast and Liberia. Then there is the
Great Blue Plantain-eater (which extends down the Congo to
190. AN ADULT MALE OF THE BLACK FOREST PIG (HYLOCHOERUS) OF
NORTH-EAST CONGOLAND AND EQUATORIAL EAST AFRICA
(From one of the specimens obtained by Baron Maurice de Rothschild.)
Nyangwe), and there are two genera of Hornbills {Ceralogymna
and Ortholophus), besides many other birds, several chameleons,
one or two snakes, and a good many butterflies and beetles.
The interesting part about this narrow Equatorial forest zone
of Africa stretching from Mount Kenya on the east to Portu-
guese Guinea on the west is that its affinities are distinctly
Malayan or Miocene-European. Fossil types discovered in
India indicate that this forest zone may have been continuous
across the Tropics of the Old World from westernmost Guinea
to easternmost Malaya — Java and Borneo.
The Gorilla was at one time thought to be restricted in its
range to the Gaboon, South Cameroons, and the western part
of French Congo. We now know that it is found as far north
in the Cameroons as the Sanaga River and as far south as the
344 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Niadi-Kwilu, close to the Lower Congo. Gorillas have been
credibly reported from the Sanga River, a hundred miles or
so west of the lower Mubangi. Thence, proceeding eastwards,
so far as records went, there was a blank between the Sanga and
the Rubi, as there has been also in the range of other types
characteristic of this forest belt of Equatorial Africa. But in
the summer of 1905, Grenfell himself killed a gorilla in the
Bwela country near the river Motima. He writes as follows in
a private letter of August 12 1905 : —
" When I was on the way to one of the inland Schools of which I
wrote you earlier on we came across a party of Gorillas. They were in
the branches of a tree nearly 150 feet high, and quite out of range of a
shot-gun. To the great joy of my hungry boys (they are always
hungry for meat) I brought one down with a rifle bullet. It was not a
very tall one, only four feet high, but it was very thickly built and im-
mensely strong. The natives say the gorillas kill the leopards by an
open-handed blow on the side of the head, and one can quite believe it,
having regard to the length of the arm and size of the hand. I remem-
ber Mr. Saker once telling me they fought 'swinging their hands round
like shovels!' The natives went on to tell me that the gorillas don't
eat the leopards at once, but that they scratch holes in some soft place
and then cover them up, and place on the top branches of wood that
the hyenas cannot lift, and then, in three or four days, when the meat is
sufficiently ' high,' they go and feast on their enemies ! "
In the Aruwimi basin as far east as Mawambi the Gorilla is
reported to exist in the dense iorests ; also between the Congo
at Stanley Falls and the vicinity of Uganda (Virunga vol-
canoes). Captain Guy Burrows in the Land of the Pygmies
gives a photograph of an alleged gorilla killed near Stanley
Falls which may be the Gorilla beringeri 1 actually ob-
tained from the forests of the Virunga volcanoes, north of
Lake Kivu, by Mr. Oscar Beringer. The present writer,
when in the Ituri Forest in 1900, was shown photographs
of an ape of large size like a gorilla which had been killed
by the natives near Avakubi, and photographed by a Belgian
officer.
Grenfell's references to gorillas and chimpanzis all apply
to the north bank of the Congo or to regions beyond the
north or right bank. And this prompts the present writer to
advance an interesting suggestion, namely, that the lake-like
course and basin of the main Congo has been a great factor in
limiting the distribution of the forest-zone fauna southwards.
1 Vide " Notes on Anthropoid Apes," by the Honble. Walter Rothschild, Pro-
ceedings Zoological Society, 1904.
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES
345
All creatures like the great apes unable or unwilling to cross
broad expanses of water, and entering Africa from the north or
east, must have been effectually stopped in their progress south-
westwards by the Congo, from Lake Bangweulu to the
Atlantic. Although the Chimpanzi has been at times reported
191. A CHIMPANZI FROM THE BATEKE COUNTRY NORTH OF
STANLEY POOL
Photographed by Grenfell at Brazzaville.
to exist south of the Congo, in Angola, no specimen (that I
know of) in any museum can be derived with certainty from
south of the Lower Congo. The confusion arises probably
from specimens sent to Europe in former days from Kabinda
or Luango, districts more or less Portuguese, but north of the
Congo. The present writer cannot recall any evidence as to
the existence of a chimpanzi or gorilla from any portion of the
346 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Congo basin south or west of the main Congo. A chimpanzi
(Livingstone's " Soko ") is found on the west coast of Tan-
ganyika, in the Manyema country, and as far south as
Marungu, in the region between Tanganyika and the Lualaba.
But I believe so far no specimen of great ape 1 has been
collected south or west of the main Congo, nor has any other
mammal of the forest belt which is unable to swim or to cross
in some way a broad, deep, rapid current. For example, I
believe only one species of Manis anteater — the East African
Manis temminckii — penetrates into the region south of
the main Congo, and Manis temminckii extends over South
Africa as well. The range of the three other species of this
" edentate " keeps to the regions north of the Congo, from
Sierra Leone to Uganda.
This barrier of the Congo may be a reason why the mamma-
lian fauna of central Congoland is comparatively poor. The
broad river has stopped the advance from the north and east of
so many beasts characteristic of the Equatorial forest belt, while
the East African fauna has not yet had time to travel all the way
round the sources of the Congo and penetrate northwards to the
regions beyond the Kasai and Lukenye. The original lake
basin of the Congo to the north of the Lukenye River is the
region that seems to be poorest in species of mammals, in
comparison with the wealth of Central, South Central, and
Eastern Africa.
In 1885 Grenfell, as already related, had traced the Mubangi
River as far upstream as the Zongo Rapids, and had penetrated
beyond just enough to realize that the river came from the east,
and might conceivably be the lower course of Schweinfurth's
Wele. In 1887 his task was continued by Lieutenant (afterwards
Lt.-Col. and Vice-Governor) Vangele, of the Belgian Army.
Vangele by January 1888 had traced the Mubangi under the
names of Dua and Koyu some distance past its confluence with
the Mbomu. He penetrated, in fact, far enough to make its
identification with the Wele a matter of certainty, especially as
Dr. Junker had a few years previously greatly extended the
western course of Schweinfurth's river. The Greek explorer,
Dr. Potagos, in 1877 had discovered the Mbomu, a river which
was made more clearly known by Junker.
1 Mr. S. P. Verner, however {Pioneering in Central Africa), states that he has
seen a chimpanzi in the forests of the Lulua. These apes might however have
crossed the Lualaba near its sources, and have found their way north to the forests
between the Lomami and the Kasai.
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES 347
After Vangele's successful exploit, a number of enterprising
Belgians and several French explorers launched themselves
with enthusiasm on the northern portion of the Congo basin,
and by 1895 all the main facts of geography in this direction
had been recorded and mapped.
The ultimate source of the head-stream of the Wele is within
a few miles — perhaps not more than twenty-five — of the station
of Wadelai on the Mountain Nile. The upper Wele, known in
these regions as the Kibi, Iret, and Kibali, rises with many
contributing streams in the same knot of mountains (Mounts
Speke, Emin, Schweinfurth, etc. — about three to four thousand
feet in altitude) as gives rise to the Aruwimi-Ituri on the south,
and on the east to many affluents of the Nile. The northern
limits of this range also feed the Kibali through its north-
easternmost affluent, the Dungu or Bangari River. 1 This united
with the Kibali takes the name of Wele or Werre 2 in the
Mafibettu country.
At the place called Bomokandi the Wele is joined by a
very considerable affluent — the Bomokandi — which under the
name of Meri-Mayo rises in the Momvu country near the
sources of the Ituri, flowing in almost parallel loops to those of
the Wele. Below the Bomokandi confluence the Wele is some-
times known as Malima, then as Makua, then again as Koyu ;
but as the river flows through a region of singularly diverse
tribes and languages, it probably bears at least a hundred differ-
ent names. At Yakoma it is joined by the Mbili, and by the
very big river Mbomu, which has acquired importance as being
the frontier between the French and Belgian Congo, from the
point where both of them are conterminous with the Egyptian
Sudan.
The Mbomu in its lower course is interrupted by many falls
and rapids. Navigation by canoes, with some intervals of
portage, is carried on as far upstream as Bangaso.
From the confluence of the Wele with the Mbima, below
Bomokandi, it becomes a broad stream, but its course between
there and the vicinity of the Mbomu is interrupted by rapids or
falls which are serious obstacles to steamer navigation, though
steam launches during the flood season of the year can ascend
the Wele-Mubangi from the Congo to the post of Banzyville.
1 It was on the head-waters of the Dungu at Ndirfi that Baron Dhanis' troops
revolted February 14 1897, as he was on his way to occupy the Bahr-al-Ghazal region.
2 Ware, Werre, or Wele is the name applied to a number of different rivers in
this part of the Congo basin, and is probably a widespread term for a flowing stream
in this part of Central Africa. It may be related to the Bale, Bari, Bere of the
N. Western Bantu.
348 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
From here to Jabir 1 (the former capital of a Nyamnyam sultan-
ate), and for some fifty miles beyond Jabir, navigation can be
continued in canoes, even to the post of Semio on the Werre.
From Amadi on the Wele-Makua eastwards to the Logo
country the river is again navigable by boats or canoes (some
two hundred miles).
The Rapids 2 [beginning southwards at Zongo], which
stopped Grenfell in 1885, are, however, the limit of easy, all-
the-year-round navigation from the Congo confluence upstream.
Here the Mubangi forces its way through two ridges of low
hills which run from the north-west to the south-east athwart
its course. This hilly region extends southwards for some
distance beyond the right bank of the Mubangi, as far south, in
fact, as the Lua River, where the swampy region begins. This
undulating country of low hills separates the basin of the
Mubangi on the east and south from the watershed of the
Mongala River and its many affluents, and really marks the
northern limits of the original Congo Lake.
Along its north or right bank the Mubangi receives many
affluents with an imposing length of course, but not always of
great volume, inasmuch as they take their rise in the dry
regions of the central Sudan. The head-stream of the Chinko
or Shinko rises farthest north of all the Congo affluents —
almost under the 8th degree of N. Lat. The Chinko and the
Bali join the Mbomu. The Koto River rises also not far south
of 8° from a low range of mountains on the borders of the
Chad-Shari basin, and is rather an important racial boundary, to
some extent defining the frontier between the Nsakara and the
more savage negro tribes. Its lower course is barred with many
rapids. Another northern affluent of the Mubangi is the
Kwango, interesting from its Bantu name. Amongst the
north-western affluents are the Kemo and Tomi (both partly
navigable from near the Shari water - parting), the Mpoko,
Bali-Lobai, and Ibenga, rivers of considerable volume rising
close to the upper Sanga and navigable for some distance by
1 Jabir was (seemingly) an Abandjia (Zande, Nyamnyam) chiefs son who early
attached himself to a party of Sudanese traders, thus reaching Khartum and becoming
acquainted with Gordon's Government. He subsequently returned with a large
following and many guns, and founded a chieftainship on the Wele. He was executed
by the Belgians in 1905 after an unsuccessful rising against the State.
2 I have ventured to give the comprehensive name of "Grenfell Falls" to the
series of rapids which (except at times of high flood) completely interrupt navigation
on the Mubangi. These extend for a distance of about forty-five miles, beginning on
the north with the Rapid of Mokwangai ; then follow close together the Rapid of the
Elephant, of the En Avant, of Basera, and of Belli. After this there is a stretch of
twenty miles of troubled water, and then the final Zongo Fall. (H. H. J.)
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES 349
canoes. All the regions to the north and west of the Mubangi,
from its confluence with the Mbomu to the main Congo, are of
course part of French West Africa.
The mountains or hills both north and south of the Mubangi
River seem to be rich in copper, and most of the peoples of
this region work this metal. Alluvial gold has been discovered
in the extreme north-east of the Congo basin, in the Kilo
mountain streams about thirty miles west of the shores of Lake
Albert. Washing the sands of the western Ituri in these
mountain valleys is becoming a lucrative operation, attracting
large numbers of negroes from the Nile territories of the
Uganda Protectorate. This is the only region of the Congo
Free State as yet wherein payable gold has been discovered,
except of course
the mines of Ka- iV,-"
tanga in the far j:
south.
North of the :•■;
central Mubangi,
past the rapids of
Zongo, there is a
flat district which
was once a lake '■:•'••■
(no doubt) im- •
prisoned for a time 192. gnathonemus ibis, a fish of the mubangi
behind the Zongo river
barrier, through which it burst to join the vast inland sea of the
Congo. This northern plain is ill-spoken of for agriculture, but
it seems to be a magnificent game country. The undulating or
hilly land south of the Mubangi (a tongue of which reaches to
the main Congo at Bopoto) is praised by many travellers for its
rich soil and advanced native agriculture. The dense forest does
not seem to extend north of the Wele-Makua-Mubangi, and be-
yond the Aruwimi basin has been much abated by the vigorous
agriculture of the Mafibettu, A-zande, Ababua, Mongwandi, and
Banza. There is much honey in all the lands of the Mubangi-
Wele basin. The Ligurian honey-bee is said to be present in
the Nyamnyam country (A-banjia). North of the Mubangi-
Wele the big mammalian fauna is quite "Sudanian " — giraffes,
black buffalo, lions, rhinoceros, giant eland, hartebeest, tsesebe,
water-buck, wild dogs (Lycaon), and hyaenas. The zebra seems
to be completely absent from all regions west of the Nile.
It is only found in the south-east and extreme south of the
Congo basin.
35o GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
The Ethnology of all this North Congo region is far more
complicated than any other division of the Congo basin.
Linguistically, we are no longer in the exclusive domain of the
Bantu. Racially, the physical type varies from . the pygmy
and from the most primitive form of forest negro known (in
the eastern basin of the Aruwimi) upwards through such
magnificent blackmen as the Ababua, Mongwandi, Sango, and
Banza, to the negroid Nsakara and the almost Hamitic aristo-
cracies among the Nyamnyam and Manbettu.
The natives of the densely forested Aruwimi basin include
considerable numbers of Pygmies, interspersed among the
taller tribes of Bantu or Sudanese negroes. The dwarf
hunters of the forests are seemingly of two or more types,
black-skinned and yellow-skinned. The lighter-coloured
pygmies in addition are sometimes of quite refined features and
comely appearance. But this variation must be due to inter-
mixture with outside races. The typical pygmy, whether dark
or light in skin colour, presents these characteristic features :
rather bulging eyes, an absolutely flat nose with the alee nearly
on a level with the flattened tip, a very long upper lip, not
everted (as in the ordinary negro), and a weak and retreating
chin ; also a tendency to the growth of light-coloured, downy
hair on the body and to reddish hair on the head. The
pygmy type has not been reported to occur to the west of the
Aruwimi-Rubi basin. It is not heard of in these latitudes
westwards, until the traveller reaches the regions west of the
Mubangi ; also the Sanga, Ogowe and southern Cameroons.
North of the Aruwimi the pygmy peoples extend to the
Wele-Makua (where they are called Balia, Akka, Bakke-bakke,
and Tikitikt), and even in a more mixed type into the Bahr-
al-Ghazal region (the " Red Bongo "). Eastwards and south-
wards the pygmies under the names of Bambute or Wambutu,
Bakiokwa or Bakwa are found in the Ituri-Aruwimi and
Semliki basins, and along the Albertine Rift valley to the
north and west coasts of Tanganyika (Batzva). They are
present in central Congoland (Batzva, Baftutu, Barumbi, Bua)
from the Lomami right across to the Lulongo, the Ruki and
Lake Ntomba, and also in the forest regions of the Sankuru-
Kasai basin [Batzva, Bakzva, Yeke), and in Ubudjwa, between
the Lualaba and Tanganyika [vide chapter xxi].
The black negroes of the central and upper Aruwimi basin
belong mostly (but not entirely) to the " Forest negro " type,
with disproportionately short legs, long arms, and prognathous
faces. The Balese and Balende of the upper Ituri make them-
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES
351
selves additionally hideous by the women wearing large lip-
rings. But here, as elsewhere along the northern watershed
of the Congo, there has been a mingling of blood with the
Sudan, a slight infiltration of the Hamite and the tall Nilotic
negro.
Indeed the Aruwimi seems to have been one of the routes
by which the northern negroes and negroids broached the
Congo basin, pierced the im- rj- ; ••..,-, —-■••-•- - ,* --.---;---:-;
penetrable forests to reach the
great river-highway.
In arts and manufactures
some of the Aruwimi tribes
have not got beyond the wood-
and-stone age, and still employ
wooden spears and arrow-
heads ; others work copper and
iron most successfully and ar-
tistically, 1 make beautiful pot-
tery of a high order of aesthetic
merit.
Language families together
with racial types are very di-
verse in north-eastern Congo-
land ; a language map of this
region would look much like
the geology of Somersetshire —
samples of many formations of
widely separated ages. I n the
extreme north-east, on the
verge of the Nile watershed
near Lake Albert, are the
Nilotic negro tribes of the Adyellu, and Alur or Alulu.
West and north of the Adyellu are Mundu and Misa
peoples, mainly in the basin of the Yei. The Misa would
almost seem to offer some linguistic connection with the
North Congo Bantu. On the lofty plateaux and mountains
stretching between the sources of the Ituri and the head-
waters of the Wele are the Logo, Lega, Drudu or Lendu (the
correct name is uncertain) — a tribe of very mixed physical
type ; simian, short-legged pygmies and tall, big-nosed, hand-
193. A THIEF'S weapon from banalya,
ARUWIMI
Used for stealing goats, to simulate a leopard's
claws, and sometimes a woman's breast is torn
off by this as a punishment.
1 Among other strange implements brought back by Grenfell from the Aruwimi
is the extraordinary weapon figured here, resembling very markedly similar imita-
tions of eopards' claws used by the cannibal secret societies of southern Sierra
Leone.
352 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
some negroids belonging to the same community. The Lendu,
Drudu, or Lega 1 speak a language (see my Uganda Pro-
tectorate) as yet quite isolated and without affinities. South
of the Lendu and west of the upper Semliki is the peculiar
Bantu group of the Bakuku (Bamboga), related in language to
the speech of the lower Aruwimi and Northern Congo.
Between the mid-Semliki and the upper Lindi and Chopo
rivers there are Babira forest tribes (Banande is one of their
designations) of low physical type, speaking a degraded form
of Bantu tongue (the " Kibira" of the present writer's Uganda
Protectorate). Then behind the Lendu and the Bahuku are
the other Babira? a tall, handsome Bantu people said to speak
a dialect of classical Bantu related to the Uganda- Unyoro-
Kavirondo group.
West of the Babira, and extending across the Wele-
Aruwimi basins in a south-easterly direction, is the Momvu-
Mbuba group of peoples. These penetrate through the foreign
region till they come to the very verge of the Congo watershed,
and look down, as it were, on the valley of the Semliki, behind
the country of Mboga. North-westwards, this Momvu group
fuses into the Manbettu caste, though there is apparently no
connection in language. The Momvu-Mbuba tongue is abso-
• • •
lutely non-Bantu in its roots and structure, though it resembles
it in phonology. It does not seem to offer any evidence
of connection with Manbettu, though it is tempting to trace
the racial name Momvu through Mombutu to Manbettu. This
also seems to be connected with the tribal name of Mbutu or
Mbote (Bambute) which is applied for the most part to the
pygmies in the Ituri Forest 3 who speak a dialect of Mbuba. Just
as there are Batwa forest negroes in the Kasai basin of tall
stature, and also Batwa pygmies, Barumbe dwarfs, and tall
Barumbe riverain tribes, and the same thing with the Bapoto or
Baputu of the northern Congo (some of which are yellow dwarf
hunters, others tall black river folk), so the term Mbute does not
seem necessarily to be restricted to the pygmies of the Ituri, but to
be connected with Mombutu and Momvu. This racial name also
appears as Mabode to the north of the main Aruwimi, between
that river and the Bomokandi. The Mabode people are ap-
1 Stanley's Baregga of the south-west corner of Lake Albert. My identification
of them with the " Logo " of the Belgians and of Boyd Alexander is only an assump-
tion based on slight evidence. The Logo of the Nile-Wele water-parting may belong
to the Madi, Mundu, or Nilotic groups.
2 -bira, -vita, -bita simply means "forest." Babira = people of the forest.
3 South of the Ituri Forest, the pygmies speak Bantu dialects.
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES
353
parently related to the Manbettu. 1 A sub-tribe of the Mafi-
bettu is styled Bangba. This may be an overlaid Bantu people,
possibly a former member of the Ababua-Babati group.
There is a very distant connection between the Mbuba
language and the mysterious tongue of the Bamanga and
western Bakuma non- Bantu languages, revealed to us by the
studies of the late W. H. Stapleton. The Bamanga and
kindred tribes stretch from the southern basin of the Lindi
and the upper Chopo
river to the Congo at
Stanley Falls, and even
extend across the west
bank of the Congo
in the direction of the
Lomami.
Along the Nepoko
the people seem to be
partly Maftietlu, partly
Momvu,
The dominant class
among the Manbettu
is obviously tinged
with Caucasian blood
by some intermixture
with N y a m n y a m
raiders or negroid wan-
derers of Hamitico-
Nilotic origin (like the
Bahima of Uganda).
The Manbettu lan-
guage — at present very little known — is very peculiar in its
forms and offers as yet no clue to near relationships : here and
there is a possibly elusive resemblance in a word-root to Madi
or Nyamnyam.
The western basin of the Aruwimi is entirely Bantu. South
of the main river and north of the lower Lindi are the Babali ; l
194. TYPICAL FOREST NEGROES OF THE ARUWIMI
(One of them a Mission boy.)
1 Captain Guy Burrows denies this connection (The Land of the Pygmies).
Some say the Mabode are Bantu Ababua. Mombuttu is probably only a variant of
Manbettu, but the name is used now by some writers to indicate the serfs of the
aristocratic Manbettu. Boyd Alexander describes the ' Mombutu ' as strong in
physique, with broad faces, blunt noses and high cheekbones.
2 The forest negroes of the countries between the upper Ituri and the Lindi
(? Babali) are described by Lord Mountmorres as timid yet grasping, feeble both of
intellect and physique, short of stature, and revelling in most repulsive cicatrization
and a curious garishness in personal adornment and attire. It is here that mutila-
tion of the lips of women is practised most extensively, some having the upper and
I. — 2 A
354 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
between Popoie and Panga along the Aruwimi course are the
Dagtmda (sometimes called the Bangelima). East of the Bapo-
poie [Bagunda] are the Babili or Bomili, a "backward forest
people of repulsive appearance " (Mountmorres). West of the
Bagunda are the Banalya people, who are apparently related in
language and other affinities to the Magboro 1 or Maboro of the
north. 2 The Magboro seem to belong to the great Ababua
group. According to Vice-Consul Michell their proper name is
Btibila or Abobwa.
West of Yambuya on the Aruwimi and along the Congo
banks on either side of the Aruwimi confluence are the far-
famed Ba-soko (sometimes styled Basaka, Bazoko, Basongo,
Barumbu). They are related in language and perhaps origin
to the riverain Congo people — Turumbu, Baunga, Topoke, and
Lokele, and to the inhabitants of the lower Lomami. 8
" The Basoko men are big, strong, and capable of education. 4 They
wear a loin cloth of felted bark ; their weapons are a shield of basket-
work, a broad-headed iron spear, a long wooden pike hardened at the
fire, and a great curved knife. In war they are streaked with red, white,
and black and wear an immense head-dress of feathers.
" Ordinarily if they are not in boats on their way to the markets or
to visit fisheries, they are walking about with their weapons, or their
some both upper and lower lips extended by means ol an ivory disk let into the flesh,
so that they form a kind of beak ; others again draw the nether lip down by means
of a large crystal until it hangs below the chin.
"The men of these tribes, however, are good huntsmen, carrying little bows and
exquisitely made arrows, which they use with a Pygmy-like deftness." Their huts
also seem to be very like those of the Pygmies, low shelters thatched with large
leaves. Between Bafwaboli and Bafwasendi the people are of a slightly higher type,
with better-constructed villages and better-cultivated plantations.
1 "The Liagboro language is spoken at Banalya, on the middle Aruwimi," Gren-
fell notes, besides stating that the tribes to the south, such as the Bangba, speak the
Ndaka language, which may be that of the (eastern) Bakumu, a very corrupt Bantu
(see page 328). _
2 Note derived from a Belgian source :
" From the moral and intellectual point of view, the natives of the Banalya
villages and those up the river are superior to the Basoko, but they are far inferior
to them as fishers and paddlers. When they go up the river they make little use of
the paddle ; when the depth of the water allows it, they use the pole, which they
handle in a remarkably even style. The Bagunda use the bow and arrow. The
tribe is, it appears, a very important one. Like the Banalya, the Bagunda pound
kola nut to make from it a beverage which they suck through a straw."
3 The domain of the Soko-Kele peoples might be called the Ya country,
from the constant use in place names of this unexplained prefix. Up the Lindi River
there is a large district in which the names of the villages or tribal settlements begin
with Bafwa- or Bavwa-. On the central Aruwimi there is the Ava district ; farther
to the east most village names begin with Andi- or Inde- (this may be a Momvu-Mbuba
prefix : it stretches from near the Semliki on the south to the Kibali-Wele on the north).
Many of the Mafibettu names begin with Ne-\ it would be interesting to elucidate the
purport of these particles peculiar to each district. Bafwa may be a softening of
Bakwa, which means 'people.'
4 Much of what follows on the Basoko is evidently extracted by Grenfell from
some Belgian report. (H. H. J.)
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES
355
huge paddle ; or else they are mending fishing-nets, fashioning floats of
light wood and hooks, repairing their bow-nets, or adzing the sides of a
hollowed log which is to become a canoe. The freeman Musoko, however,
is often stretched on a couch in the shade, or lying propped on the
movable bed which is in use in these districts.
" The women wear a small loin-cloth of a hand's breadth made of
plaited material, suspended from a girdle or worn as a small apron.
They are good mothers and generally looked up to by their husbands,
who do not overburden them with excessive work, and treat them well.
" Their tatuing is highly characteristic, and almost entirely confined
to the face ; it is composed of large dots bordering the lips in parallel
195. BASOKO PEOPLE
lines and covering the chin as well as the brow. The eyelashes and
hairs of the eyebrows are carefully plucked out.
" The outer margin of the ear is pierced by six, seven, or eight holes,
into which are inserted cords as thick as the finger and sometimes an
elephant hair strung with beads, terminated at both extremities by thick
knots. The temples and brows are shaved to the line of the ears.
With some of them, the remaining hair is formed into a few flat plaits
which are pulled forward towards the face, each terminating on the neck
in a wisp of four to six inches long.
" The forest races behind the Basoko wear at the top of the forehead
a vertical plait of six to eight inches, crowned by a tuft of red river-
hog's bristles. They are further decorated with an ornament of this kind
over each ear.
356 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
" To give evidence of his goodwill, the Musoko sets his spear in the
ground and lays down his shield. In giving you his hand, he rubs the
tip of your fingers, then snaps his thumb against his fingers.
" The Basoko work iron chiefly for the purpose of fashioning the rough
spear-heads which are still used as currency on the north-eastern Congo.
" They use copper to make beads and ornaments, and to decorate
their weapons. They also manufacture shields, baskets, very strong
mats, and nets for which the natives of the interior provide them with
raw material, by selling prepared fibres and string. The Basoko cloth
is principally made of the bark or bast of fig trees, beaten with a mallet.
They prepare their food in earthenware vessels. Potter's clay is found
everywhere in their neighbourhood and is shaped by the women, who
show great skill in this work.
" The people in the basin of the Menena-Lulu River, an affluent
which joins the Aruwimi near its mouth, are all Bantu in lan-
guage. They are — ascending from the Congo north-eastward — the
Bajande, Mabenja, and Magboro, the last-named extending to the
Aruwimi. The country of the Mabenja is distinguished from other
districts by the number, beauty, and cleanliness of the villages.
The houses are round with a conical roof, regularly placed. At the
centre of each collection stands a rectangular building where the inhabi-
tants meet together during the day in order to talk, play, or discuss
questions of general interest. The public places, connecting roads and
neighbourhood, are maintained in good condition with great care.
" The Mabenja hunts and tills the soil. He lives among his family
and travels little. He is hospitable. Unlike the Bajande he is gentle
and peaceable, and gets on very well with Europeans. He is always
satisfied with what is offered him and does not beg."
Here is another note collected by Grenfell as to a Benja or
Mabenja settlement on the Lulu River : —
" The village of Masimu is composed of several groups of dwell-
ings set in a perfectly straight line. The houses, built of clay, are
round and surmounted by a conical roof. A very low building, thirty
or more yards in length, seems to serve as a meeting-place or as a
workshop for the manufacture of fishing-nets. In the centre of the
village a large open space, carefully preserved, is kept for dances and
sham fights."
The Magboro speak the same dialect as the Mabenja,
have villages of the same style, and adopt the same patterns
in cicatrization.
Behind the Basoko and Abuja, the peoples of the Itimbiri-
Loika-Rubi basin, of the north-western affluents of the Aru-
wimi, and of the middle course of the Wele, east of Jabir, are
Bantu in their languages, and may be classed generically as
the Ababua ; a group which includes the Bangelima, Abobwa
(Bubua), Banalya, Magboro, Mabenja of the Aruwimi, the
196. A NATIVE CHIEF FROM THE BWELA DISTRICT BEHIND BOPOTO AND
HIS LITTLE SON (A SCHOLAR AT THE MISSION SCHOOL)
Note: Chief is wearing a bandolier of the Bongo Tragelaph skin.
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES 359
Baganji, Baluali, Benge, Baieu, Babanda, and Baduda of the
Rubi basin, and the Babati, Bakango Ababua, and allied
tribes inhabiting that part of the Wele district which is situ-
ated between the Bomokandi, Rubi, and Aruwimi ; or between
latitude i° 40' and 3 30' N., and longitude 23 to 26 30' E.
These Bantu-speaking people of the Ababua group at one time
seem to have extended northwards to the Werre River, and
almost to the verge of the Nile basin, but were gradually driven
south by the invading A-zande (Nyamnyam). "Ababua" is a
Nyamnyam rendering of Babua. Another comprehensive
native name for this group is Babati (the Mobati of the
Belgians), but Babua or Bubua is more widespread. The
Ababua dialects of the Wele basin are closely allied to Stanley's
"Bakiokwa" of Indekaru on the Epulu (north-west Ituri) and
also to some of the north Congo and west Semliki tongues.
Physically the Ababua (and their Magboro, ' Bangelima,'
Banalya relations on the middle Aruwimi) are said to be the
finest of all the inhabitants of the Congo. They are tall and slim,
but their endurance does not appear to be very great. They are
naturally hospitable, and are distinguished by a great love of
freedom, but the fear of losing their independence makes them
suspicious of strangers. This characteristic is justified by
their history, since they have lost, in wars with the A-zande,
a great part of their territory. 1
Throughout these northern territories of the Congo it might
be observed (in examining a careful map) how many place,
river, and even tribal names are Bantu in word-formation, even
when the race inhabiting the district is distinctly non-Bantu in
speech. Doubtless this is due to Bantu peoples having at one
time inhabited the northernmost parts of the Congo basin, from
which stronger negroid races from the Sudan have driven them
south, east, and west.
The lands on either side of the Mongala River [below the
falls and the junction of the Dua, Ebola, and Ibanza] are peopled
by Bantu tribes (tall, stalwart folk) related to the Bangala, and
styled Buja, Bwela, Maba/i, and Aku/a. They speak dialects of
a group called " Ngombe " by W. H. Stapleton, which is closely
related to Ngala, Bangi, Poto, and other north Congo tongues.
North of the Businga Falls of the Mongala the territory is
occupied by a tribe obviously non- Bantu — the (so-called) Mong-
wandi. They inhabit the country covered by the fan-like basin
of the Mongala. Their language offers distinct analogies to that
1 See Professor Halkin's Quelqnes peuplades dti district de I'Uele, published at
Liege in 1907.
360 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
of the Sango, farther north ; and this warlike tribe may also be
connected with the Banza people, so extolled by Belgian and
British explorers for their physical beauty and high civilization.
The Banza occupy the territories between the Mongala basin and
the eastern bank of the Mubangi, especially the valley of the Lua
River. Their range extends northwards almost to the northern
Mubangi. Between the Mongwandi and the Bantu people of the
Rubi River (behind the riverain Bapoto and Buja) are the non-
Bantu Ndonga or Bondonga. Linguistically this tribe is uncon-
197. EXAMPLES OF THE MONGWANDI TRIBE, FROM THE UPPER MONGALA RIVER
(The Mongwandi are allied to the Sango of the Mubangi.)
nected with the Mongwandi, but offers considerable affinities to
the Bamanga of the Lindi valley and Stanley Falls.
The Banza country is magnificently fertile and the people 1
occupying it are one of the finest negro races of the Congo.
Unless they are killed out by sleeping sickness they should play
a notable part in the agricultural development of this region.
The following notes on the Banza were compiled by Torday
from Belgian information: —
"The Banza is a clever smith: it is he who makes lances, hoes,
and knives for the surrounding districts. But where he excels is in the
1 From the linguistic information collected by Grenfell and Stapleton [and the
present writer], it would seem as though the Banza were related linguistically to the
Mundu of the Bahr-al-Ghazal (see page 363).
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES 361
manufacture of iron bells, real marvels of finish and sonority. These
bells have such a far-reaching repute that they are sometimes purchased
by a small tusk of ivory or a young slave.
" The men are sober, brave, thrifty, and nearly always monogamous.
Their women are modest and respected. Very little regard is had for
clothing, though the Sudanese drawers are coming into fashion
amongst the men. The Banza are sharply distinguished from other
Congo tribes by the interest the men take in agriculture. Ordinarily
among the Congo negroes the men disdain work in the fields, which
they consider exclusively the province of women and debasing to men.
But the male Banza takes pride in the number, size, and management
of his plantations. His fields are laid out in a regular manner. He
begins by a vast square of cleared ground. Each seed plot is circular,
and surrounded by a broad ring of banana trees. Inside this the Banza
plants in long rows high-stalked millet, and between these stalks
kidney beans. He knows that the millet will preserve the haricot,
covered by its protecting shade, from the destructive heat of the sun,
A TOM-TOM DRUM FROM THE BALOI COUNTRY, LOWER MUBANGI
and furthermore that the haricot will twine itself at its will round this
same stalk of its double benefactor.
" Moreover, he divides his diligent care among the maize, the sweet
potato, yam, plantain-banana, small sweet banana, arachis, and manioc,
this last in small quantity. The elais palm tree being rare in these
countries, the Banza people supply the wanted oil by cultivating the
sesamum plant, the seeds of which supply them with an excellent oil
for cooking purposes.
"Tobacco, cultivated only to the amount required, grows in
abundance, and is of splendid quality. But here the Banza is betrayed
by a want of knowledge that not all his zeal can replace. Ignoring
the right way to cure and dry the fragrant leaves, he holds them on
drumsticks before the flame of a hot fire. When dry, or rather
blackened, his tobacco has the appearance of China tea, and is wrapped
in rolls of palm leaf, bound like a sausage, and hung up covered with
charcoal and without aroma on the inside vault of his dwelling.
"The ndongo or maize beer and juigo, a kind of mead obtained by
steeping small, very acidulated green leaves in honey and water,
constitute the indigenous Banza drinks. As good to taste as it is
refreshing,/?^ gives him who abuses it a terrible colic, but it does not
intoxicate.
362 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
"Agriculture requires cattle-breeding, and the Banza who does not
trust exclusively to hunting for a supply of meat possesses, besides
innumerable poultry, splendid herds of goats whose immense size and
savoury flesh testify to the precaution which has been taken in
emasculating numbers of the males.
" In short, the clean and comfortable dwellings, respectable morals,
and the relative comfort of life that characterize the Banza people
entitle them to the most considerate treatment at the hands of those
Europeans whom Fate has placed in control over this fine country."
The Baloi people of the extreme lower
already been alluded to in previous chapters. They .,,.,,. .
people of the Ngiri River are probably connected in origin with
Mubanoi have
o
and the
199. CHRYSICHTHYS ORNATUS, A FISH OF THE MUBANGI AND NORTHERN CONGO
Collected by Rev. J. H. Weeks, B.M.S.
the " Bangala " peoples, and of course speak Bantu dialects.
Some of the Ngombe tribes are said to extend their range to
the region between the Mubangi and Ngiri.
Viscount Mountmorres describes the population of the lower
Mubangi above Imese as very mixed, some villages being
" Zongo " and others " Bonjo." According to the Belgian
authorities, Bonjo is a general name given to the more or less
Bantu tribes on the west side of the lower Mubangi. On the
left or east bank of the Mubangi, between the confluence of the
Lua River and the vicinity of the Ngiri, the predominant tribe
(also Bantu) is called Dongo or Longo [their country is entitled
Bulongo]. The "Zongo" or Bazembi people living to the west
of the lower Mubangi in the valley of the Lobai River are
described by Mountmorres as small of stature and ravaged by
yaws, craw-craw, and other unpleasant diseases. They are
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES 363
largely a riverain race, depending on fisheries for their living,
though they also make pottery out of the mud of the river and
carry on a poor agriculture. They have been much harried in
former years by the Banza, Bonjo, and Dongo, who raided their
villages and carried them off as slaves to be sold at the mouth
of the Mubangi and on Lake Ntomba.
The "Bonjo" and "Dongo" appear [according to Mount-
morres] to be the same people, and are a hybrid race between
the Forest negroes and the more northern people of the plains.
They are a splendid, intelligent, and fearless race, hardy, of fine
physique, and singularly free from disease. They practise
circumcision. Their towns are large and admirably built.
Mountmorres cites instances of remarkable prolificness. A
family consisting of one husband, twenty wives, and eighty
children is by no means a rarity. They are convinced canni-
bals, preferring human flesh to all other meat.
It has been already recorded that when Grenfell in 1885
passed beyond 3 2' N. Lat. about the confluence of the River
Lobai, he encountered a folk whose language sounded strange
' 000
in his ears. The vocabulary he recorded showed that it was no
Bantu dialect. W. H. Stapleton also visited these people in
1897 and took down another list of words. He called the
language tentatively Mpombo. Neither he nor Grenfell could
form any theory as to the relationship of " Mpombo." It was
reserved for the present writer to solve this enigma.
In the extreme north-east of the Congo State, on the
frontiers of the Lado enclave, there is a relatively small tribe
known as the Mundu. It inhabits the south-eastern part
of the Nyamnyam country, between 3 30' and 5 N. Lat.
Possibly tribes allied to the Mundu may be found in patches
through the Nyamnyam domain north of the Wele River and
in the direction of the Mbomu. The present writer found
there were Mundu soldiers in the ranks of the native forces
of Uganda originally recruited by Emin Pasha. He collected
a vocabulary from them which is published in the Uganda
Protectorate. Comparing all these vocabularies with the un-
classified Mpombo of the lower Mubangi (seven hundred miles
west of Mundu-land), the interesting discovery was made that
the Mundu language corresponded with Mpombo to a remark-
able degree. As will be seen in the chapter on languages, the
words collected by these two missionaries in that district agree
very closely with the vocabulary written down by the present
writer from natives of the Mundu district within the Nile water-
shed, seven hundred miles to the eastward. Further, there are
364 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
indications, faint but impressive, that this language type is con-
nected with the Bamanga of Stanley Falls, and possibly with
some of the other languages spoken along the Wele-Mubangi.
There may even be a far-distant linguistic connection between
the Manbettu, Madi, Lendu, Momvu, Ndonga, Bamanga,
Mundu, and the western Mubangi groups (Mpombo), and
between these again and the other languages of the Wele-
Makua and Mbomu rivers. It is presumed, but not yet certain,
that the language of the Banza people is similar to Mpombo.
The Madi group of the Mountain Nile and the Lado
enclave (Madi, Logbwari, Abukaya, and, in the far west, Mitu)
enters the Congo basin near the sources of the Wele and of
the Mbomu. It also reappears in a remarkable enclave on
the north side of the Wele River, between the Wele and the
Werre, on either side of Long. 27°. The range of the
Madi people (or language, at any rate) is as remarkable as that
of the Mundu-Mpombo, just noticed — from the Asua River in
Long. 32 2c/ to the Wele River in Long. 26 30'. The well-
marked Madi type of language has faint affinities with the
Bantu, and also with the Manbettu, Mundu, Momvu, and
Lendu groups. The Madi negroes are tall, well built, but of
pronounced negro type.
The intrusive Nyamnyam (Makarka, Azande) extend
from the vicinity of the Nile at Duffle right across and along
the basin of the Wele-Mubangi, as far eastwards as the con-
fluence between that river and the Mbomu. They may even
be connected linguistically with the Nsakara that dominate the
western Mbomu and the regions of the northern Mubangi.
The affinities of the Makarka or Nyamnyam speech are, like
those of the Manbettu, one of Central Africa's many unsolved
riddles. Here and there seem to be elusive glimpses of a con-
nection between the Nyamnyam dialects and the Mundu-
Mpombo group already referred to, but our information on
both speech-families is insufficient for a decisive opinion. In
physical characteristics, as numerous travellers point out, the
Nyamnyam though mixed in type are negroid rather than
negro. They resemble in face and body some of the hand-
somer Bantu negroes, and recall in their customs and features
the Hamite (Hima) aristocracies of Uganda and Unyoro.
Their culture and civilization have been largely influenced by
the Nilotic races. As well as the northern part of the Congo
Free State, they inhabit a great deal of the Bahr-al-Ghazal
region of the Egyptian Sudan. There are traces there of
ancient Egyptian influence in arts, manufactures, and beliefs.
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES 365
The Nyamnyam 1 inhabiting the northern parts of the
Congo Free State are divided into the following groups (west
to east) : A-banjia, A-zande, A-barambo, and Makarka. 2
West of the Nyamnyam country — between the Mbomu
and the Koto — is the domain of the powerful Nsakara tribe, the
sultan of which has his name-place and capital at Bangaso.
The Nsakara impinge somewhat on the territories of the
Abanjia section of the Nyamnyam, to the south of the
western Mbomu.
" The primary ancestors of Sultan Bangaso (Beringa and his father,
Banga) were unimportant chieftains settled on the Mbomu, Bali, and
Zako. Their descendant, Boendi, grandfather of the actual chief, was
the real founder of the dynasty and kingdom such as it exists at the
present time. He it was who, with his four sons, Bali, Badoka, Ganda,
and Mada, conquered nearly the whole of the country watered by the
Mbomu and its tributaries, and established the Nsakara tribe there.
" Bangaso, Bali's son, a man of an intelligence and energy rarely
equalled, succeeded in getting all the power into his firm hand, and
adding some conquests to those of his grandfather, Boendi, definitively
created the empire as we know it to-day.
" The actual sultan practises ' self-government ' in the widest sense.
All important decisions are settled by him. Trustworthy couriers
acquaint him regularly at all hours of the day with all that is happening
in the country.
" The means he employs of asserting his authority are sometimes
cruel, but this severity, often necessary with such subjects as are under
his rule, is tempered by a great depth of natural kindness. He attends
to everything himself, and never forgets anything of importance. Justice
is administered by the sultan himself, who, however, leaves unimportant
cases to his chiefs ; but whenever there is question of a free man or of a
crime of some gravity the accused must appear before Bangaso himself.
" Polygamy is practised on an extensive scale. Bangaso sets the
example himself; he has about fifteen hundred wives, who have borne
him sixty children. As soon as his sons are of an age to command
they are sent to different parts of the country. It is, to a certain extent,
due to them that the sultan maintains his authority and is kept so well
informed of all that happens in his kingdom.
"The Nsakara, who dominate all the other tribes to the west and
north, employ the greater part of their time in hunting and in war.
Some of them, in a small way, devote themselves to trade : they are
smiths, basket-makers, potters, etc. The women cultivate the land,
carry burdens, and attend to all household duties. These natives are
generally fairly indolent. Slavery naturally exists throughout these
regions, but it is tempered by a law forbidding a master to kill his slave.
1 This generic name is derived from a cant term of the Bantu borderland mean-
ing "meat." The Sudanese slave-traders accused the Nyamnyam cannibals of always
wanting human flesh.
2 This word is sometimes written Makaraka or Makraka. To the present writer
it always sounds as Makarka with the " r " strongly trilled.
366 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Bangaso has further the right to emancipate a slave and to make of him
a free man, for warlike feats or eminent services.
" A child born of a free man and a slave is free. He receives, like
all the Nsakara, at a certain age (about sixteen) the distinctive mark of
the race — that is, four rows of lines which cross each other, tatued hori-
zontally across the forehead." x
Amongst the Nsakara live the Dendi people, described by
Lord Mountmorres as "lean, ragged-looking, and wholly want-
ing in the physical beauty of the Banza people farther west."
The Dendi men as a rule wear a thin, long beard and an
abundant moustache.
North-west of the Nsakara and the Azande group of the
Nyamnyam is the relatively vast country inhabited by the
Banda negroes, a region vaguely known to geography as Dar
Banda many years before the Congo basin was discovered. It
was the resort of Arab or Nubian slave-traders for several
centuries, who penetrated hither from Wadai, Darfur, and
Bao'irmi. Westwards of the Banda and the Nsakara, within
the basin of the Mubangi, there are many tribes of unsettled
affinities \_Ngizi, Dakoa, Ngapu, Linguasi, and Lingo]. Some-
times these, like the group of people called Sango on the south
bank of the central Mubangi, are fine, handsome types of
neo'roes with intelligent faces, but without strong evidence of
Caucasian intermixture. Others again are of the Forest Negro
type — long-armed, short-legged, sturdy, ugly, prognathous.
The Linguasi and Linga are said by Captain Boyd Alexander
to be akin to the Banda.
In the southern plain of the north-western Mubangi, the
region sometimes known as Mokwangai, all the riverside
people belong (it is said) to one and the same race, which under
the name of Bongo is spread through vast territories to the
south of the Mubangi. The generic name for this group is not
known. Bongo seems to mean "the left bank" (of a river).
The people who dwell beside water are said to call themselves,
in a general way, Wa-tet (from "wa," people, and "tet," river),
and the natives of the interior Wagigi (from "wa," people, and
"gigi," dry land). The Bwajiri, A-bodo, A-bira, and Gembele
are "Wa-tet"; the Sango, on the other hand, are "Wagigi."
[Lord Mountmorres renders these terms respectively as Wa-te
and Wangene. It should be mentioned that they seem entirely
foreign in root and syntax to the Sango language.]
" The term ' Wagigi ' is, however, little used. The negroes employ
by preference the word Bongo, which means literally ' left bank,' but
1 Torday's notes.
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES 367
which applied to persons is constantly used to describe the great people
established on the left bank of the Wele-Mubangi from the Mbomu
confluence to the Bwaka country. All these natives, VVa-tet and Sango,
speak the same language (?), have the same customs, the same tatuings,
and the same weapons. They can only be distinguished by their mode
of life. The Wa-tet show to the highest degree the character of people
who dwell by the river. Admirable with the canoe, and clever fishers,
they obtain a large part of their sustenance from the fish which they
catch, and only seek to secure the balance by means of trade. They
wear as their characteristic tatuing a line of dots starting from the
occiput and ending at the nose. These blisters have more or less space
between them and
reach the size of a pea.
Though exhibiting
many variations, the
head - dress of these
natives usually follows
one type. The hair is
shaved, or cut short on
the triangular surface
comprised between the
temples and the apex
of the head. On the
remainder of the head
it is long and dressed in
shells or little twists, deco-
rated with beads or other orna-
ments according to fashion. The
men and women have the same
head-dress. One sometimes meets
with young girls who wear their hair
very long. They obtain this result by
combining with their own hair that of
some of their ancestors, or more simply by
prolonging it with a number of small s^ngs. 2 °° P ™ o*° vXmI^
In the former case, the hair appears so the upper mubangi
natural that in earlier years Europeans
have been deceived by these false additions. In the latter case, it
assumes such proportions that it becomes necessary to roll it in a
great ball of ten or twelve inches in diameter. This ornament then
becomes a veritable burden, and nothing could be more ridiculous
than to see a young, pretty girl walking laden with this heavy head-
dress tied up with a scarf.
"Commandant Vangele measured in 1887 one of these fabrics of
false hair, which, bound together in a single tress, was no less than
two yards long.
" The Wa-tet and Sango do not pluck hair from their bodies, but
they pull out their eyelashes ; they likewise commonly shave their eye-
brows, so that new ones may be traced on the brow with charcoal.
These natives have little beard and do not wear a moustache. Though
the women go nude and the men have for clothing only a bark loin-
368 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
cloth, they worship ornaments of every kind. Iron, copper, brass, tin,
ivory, and beads of all colours serve them for the manufacture of an
infinite variety of rings, bracelets, collars, earrings, pins, and amulets
with which they cover themselves. They are fond of music and play
on harps that are very Egyptian in appearance. Their weapons are
the spear and shield. In addition they usually carry with them a knife
enclosed in a sheath of antelope skin, decorated with iron or copper
ornaments.
" The Bongo peoples are big and muscular. They have small hands
and feet. Their faces, which are open and intelligent, preserve the
characteristic traits of the negro, but are not ugly. In the Bwajiri
group, which is the most mixed, we even meet with many who have an
aquiline, though short, nose and thin lips. The Sango are a comely
people, more Sudanese in appearance than the average Bantu type. 1
" The Wa-tet scarcely possess any political organization. Each
village or group of villages recognizes a chief, whose powers are little
more than those of an intermediary agent of the community. His
authority is only exercised so far as it accords with the will of the
immense majority.
" Living chiefly on fishing, these people change their abode with
astonishing ease. Like all the inhabitants of the Mubangi, they are
polygamous and cannibals.
" It is their custom to gather together in large villages of one to
three hundred huts, that is to say about three hundred to a thousand
souls. Their houses, of conical formation, are fifteen to twenty-one feet
high, and nine to fifteen feet in diameter. They are composed of a
circular wall of clay two feet to two feet eight inches in height, crowned
by a grass roof.
" The Wa-tet scarcely occupy themselves at all with cultivation.
With the product of their fishing they buy from the people of the
interior manioc, bananas, and other food necessary for their support.
Still, they plant a sufficient quantity of maize around their villages.
" All the riverside people of the upper Mubangi manufacture great
quantities of iron, which they distribute far and wide. The A-bodo,
the A-bira, and the Gembele established at the confluence of the
Mbomu and the Wele and below the Mbomu confluence live chiefly
by this industry. Although they possess copper, the natives have a
preference for brass, which has been introduced as a medium of
exchange by Europeans. That which is most in demand, however, is
glass ware, in the form of beads of different hues.
" Barter among the natives is carried on at the markets, gatherings
which take place periodically near some big village. The Sango tribes
carry thither manioc, bananas, charcoal, poles for propelling boats,
ropes, and threads for making nets ; also manufactured iron weapons,
implements, and basket-work shields. The Wa-tet, on the other hand,
sell iron, fish, native salt, beads, and other products bought in distant
lands.
" The interior Bongo (Sango) only differ from the Wa-tet in their
mode of life. The high-lying region which they inhabit to the south
of the Mubangi is covered by the dense forest already described. The
J ' Veritable giants, wonderful water men." (Boyd Alexander.)
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES
369
necessities of life have compelled these natives to gather together in
immense villages, separated from one another by considerable stretches
of uninhabited country. In this way, after having crossed a district
comprising eighteen hundred to two thousand huts (five to six thousand
souls) one may travel through primeval forest for several days without
meeting a single group of habitations.
" The Bongo villages are fortified by felled timber, pits, or moats.
The natives of the interior have powerful chiefs, whose authority is more
fully recognized than it is among the Wa-tet or people of the river.
" Not far from the villages stretch the plantations. At the cost of
enormous labour great clearings are opened in the forest. Everything
is beaten down and cut
short. Next, fire burns .. ''
up the leaves and small .:.;•,: : . ? .
dry wood. The men
do this preliminary
work. Then the women
and slaves dig up the
ground,roughly cleanse
the soil, setting them-
selves particularly to
the task of getting rid
of parasitic growths.
After this they plant
pell-mell and almost at
the same time maize,
manioc, bananas,
pumpkins, and other
vegetables, a reason-
able space being left
between the plants.
The plantation thus
produces in succession
crops of maize, vege-
tables, then bananas,
and finally manioc.
"The Bongo peo-
ples do not weed their fields except during the first half of the
year for the crops of maize and vegetables. At the end of five or six
months, banana trees and manioc plants struggle against the weeds
which grow afresh without ceasing, and they are with difficulty
disentangled from time to time. These plantations, of neglected
appearance, bristling with tree trunks and obstructing every step by all
kinds of remains, give a stranger the feeling of a work of giants, care-
less of the petty details of vegetation. By this method, the Bongo
obtain the maximum of produce and are lavishly rewarded for their
toil. They never plant in natural clearings ; the soil there is not rich
enough.
" The Bongo are hunters too. They journey one or two days'
distance from their villages, form camps in the forest, and beat the
country. They track small game, antelopes, and wild pig, which they
1. — 2 B
20i. head of a male black forest pig
(hylochcerus)
370 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
drive into nets. Large game, like the elephant, are caught in pits or
trenches into which they are made to fall, where they injure themselves
fatally on spears or pointed stakes." x
The Sang-o language is absolutely non-Bantu, and is allied
to that of the Mongwandi (upper Mongala River), but is quite
unconnected with the Mpombo or Bamanga, or any other
known group.
While the Wa-tet and Sango (with whom are identical
the Yakoma, Blaka, and Sakd) dwell on the south of the
Mubangi, the territories situated on the north of that river are
occupied by the Babu or Btibu, the Langivasi, Dambasi, Ngapu
(Ngafo), Alanbwa, and Mosokuba. These tribes use the same
form of speech with only some differences in the dialect, and
this language is said to be related to the Banda, much farther
north. Essentially agriculturists, they maintain a constant trade
with the Wa-tet, who describe them by the name of Bubu.
Taller than the Wa-tet, the Bubu has usually more slender
limbs. His face is more inclined to be ugly and prognathous ;
its expression is distrustful and morose, and contrasts with the
open and joyful air of the Wa-tet. His head approaches more
nearly to the typical negro type. The tatu marks, which are
not very characteristic, are composed of three lines of small
points, dividing the forehead in a vertical direction. The
nostrils are frequently pierced, and the Bubu wear in their lips
long prisms of rock crystal or more often pieces of copal from
one and a half to two inches long. They keep a peculiar breed
of goats with fine, silky hair.
The weapons of these natives are not of first-rate quality ;
their spears have but small heads and their shields measure only
one foot across by three feet in length. They use the bow and
arrow as well as the "hombash" or sword-knife. The Bubu
are reckoned poor hunters. If native accounts are to be
believed, the country to the north of the Mubangi should be
thickly populated, but the villages are probably divided into
small separate clusters of a few huts.
Apart from the exchange of a few slaves and some produce
there is no intercourse between the Wa-tet and the Bubu. Each
of these nations preserves its distinct characteristics. Thus, for
example, the Bubu cultivate certain products, notably a small
potato which is not found on the left bank, though it may be
brought there by barter.
The Bubu often carry on a skirmishing warfare with the
Wa-tet, but they are the natural enemies of the Nsakara, who
1 Torday's notes derived from Belgian sources, and information collected by Grenfell.
THE NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES 371
distinguish them by the name of Alailbwa. Hostilities be-
tween the Nsakara and the Alanbwa would be constant if
their mutual invasions were not impeded by the River Koto, a
serious obstacle which forms a natural barrier between these
nations.
Across the north-western Mubangi, along its right bank,
mainly, are the Banziri (Bazere, Balanga), whose southern limit
on the river is the last of the Grenfell Falls at Zongo. They
are described by Lord Mountmorres as of splendid physique
and very free from disease. This writer considered them to
be related to the Bantu group, in language and customs.
They are probably semi-Bantu in speech affinities : Chevalier
and other French authorities consider that the Banziri, Ndri,
Pa-tri, Be-dri, Manjia, and kindred tribes of the north-eastern
section of the Mubangi basin are closely related to the Baya
group of the Upper Sanga. And these last, we know, are
connected in language and culture with the semi- Bantu tribes
of the Cameroons hinterland and even with the Fafiwe invaders
of the Gaboon.
In fact, in this survey of the northern tributaries of the
Congo it might be repeated that all the human races therein
residing, with the possible exception of the pygmies, were
cannibals before European control had been established, and
are cannibals now where they have not come under European
influence or are not afraid of punishment for the crime. This
love of human flesh characterizes almost to the same degree
the Manbettu and Azande of Hamitic type, the handsome
Ababua negroes, the stalwart Bantu of the great river courses,
and the ugly forest-dwelling negroes of the Aruwimi and the
M on gala.
202. SMALL TWIN RECEPTACLE FROM THE LOWER
MUliANGI ; BLACK, VARNISHED WITH COPAL
CHAPTER XV
THE JOURNEY TO THE UNDISCOVERED BOURNE
BETWEEN 1903 and 1906 Grenfell continued at
intervals his survey and exploration of the main Congo
and its northern affluents. In 1903 he made the
journey alluded to in chapter xm up the Lualaba-Congo to
the Hinde Cataracts. But his time was chiefly devoted to
founding a new
station at Ya-
lemba, from
which he hoped
to radiate influ-
ence in the direc-
tion of the Aru-
wimi. Hither,
probably, he in-
tended to trans-
fer his home
from Bolobo, a
station much too
far to the west
to fit in with his
future plans of
exploration east-
wards and north-
wards.
One of his
last pieces of ex-
ploration in the
sense of survey
work was the mapping of the Bukatulaka channel of the Congo
in the Bangala country.
During 1905 he seems once again to have made some
exploration of the Congo above Stanley Falls, and to have
visited the eastern affluents of that section ; but the notes of
these journeys have been for the most part lost, and are
confined to a few annotations on maps. During this year —
372
203. A PHOTOGRAPH OF GRENFELL, TAKEN JANUARY 1906,
SIX MONTHS BEFORE HIS DEATH
JOURNEY TO UNDISCOVERED BOURNE 373
1905 — his health had been visibly failing. He felt very keenly
the refusal of the- Congo authorities to allow him to found
new stations anywhere to the east of Stanley Falls, either
on the Aruwimi or on the Congo. Moreover, as the sturdy
champion of the Congo State down to 1902, the revelations
of the various Consuls and Commissions respecting the mis-
management of the Royal Domaine, and of certain territories
entrusted to concessionnaire companies, came as a great shock
to his disinterested belief in the good purposes of King
204. YALEMBA, HOUSE WHERE GRENFELL LIVED PRIOR TO HIS DEATH
Leopold. He was (as I think he expresses it in a letter to a
Belgian) ddsorientd ': he did not know in which direction to
turn for the putting straight of this Congo region, which
owing to the ravages of sleeping sickness and the mistaken
policy of the King-Sovereign was getting into a deplor-
able condition in its central regions and along the main
course of the river. His distress of mind was the keener
because he had conceived a great regard for certain Belgian
officials, such as, for example, Commandant Malfeyt. He had
known personally almost every Belgian pioneer of note, and
had formed a high opinion of the majority of these men,
who, as he knew, often served their king and country most
disinterestedly for very low pay.
374 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
1 ■ These disappointments and rebuffs, as well as the fatigues
incidental to constant steamer journeys up and down the Congo
connected with the mission work, prematurely aged him.
In June 1906 he was seized with an unusually severe attack
of black-water fever at Yalemba. He had no one with him but
a few native attendants, who, when they realized his danger,
transported him in an unconscious condition to the State station
of Basoko ; and here, receiving medical attendance too late, he
died on the 1st of July 1906. Here he lies buried, having
205. GRENFELL'S GRAVE AT BASOKO
certainly left an imperishable name and fame in the history of the
Congo, not only as an explorer of the highest order, but as one
of those good and likeable men for whom no one, black or white,
has anything but praise to record. He on his part was a rare
exemplification of Christian charity — eager to applaud good
work in others, looking everywhere for the good motive, chary
of blaming or condemning without conclusive proof; absolutely
incorruptible, however, and no fool to be easily gammoned into
insipid acquiescence with wrong-doing — whether it be by a
steamer-boy, a mission scholar, a State official, or a native
chief.
JOURNEY TO UNDISCOVERED BOURNE 375
In preparation for the chapters that are to follow, it might
be as well to give here some of the personal opinions of
Grenfell on the condition of the Congo State Territories
from 1878 to the time of his death in 1906.
" It has been given to me" [he writes in June 1904] "to enter upon
the thirtieth year of my African life. For the first ten years (1874-
84) 1 I lived under native rule, and the bitter experiences of that time
have burnt themselves indelibly into my mind and memory. I saw the
havoc made by the liquor traffic over wide stretches of the country,
where bottles of gin and rum were the staple currency, and where it
206. AN ARAB CAMP, LOMAMI RIVER, WHERE THE INCIDENTS OCCURRED,
REFERRED TO BY GRENFELL ON THIS PAGE
was useless to go to market to buy food without them. It has fallen
within my experience to see slaves brought down to the white man's
store and sold for gin and rum and barter goods paid over the counter,
and I have been in the midst of an Arab raid in the centre of the con-
tinent, and within twenty-four hours counted twenty-seven burning or
smoking villages, and had myself to face the levelled guns of the
raiders. I have seen the cruel bondage in which whole communities
have been held by their superstitious fears— fears that compelled them,
lest a witch might be suffered to live, to condemn their own flesh and
blood, and to inflict the most horrible cruelties upon them. And I
have all unavailingly stood by open graves and tried to prevent the
1 In commencing his review in 1874 he refers of course to his experiences in the
Cameroons. He first saw the Congo in the beginning of 1 878.
376 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
living being buried with the dead, and altogether have seen more of
the dark side of human nature than I care to think about, and much
less to write about. I claim to know better than a great many what is
involved by ' native rule.'
" After ten years of it I knew enough to make me grateful beyond
measure when I learned that King Leopold of Belgium was taking
upon his shoulders the burdens involved by the administration of the
Congo territory— burdens that our own country, time and again, had
refused to take up.
THE RULE OF THE CONGO FREE STATE
1884-94
" A marvellous change during the second decade of my African
life came over the distracted country I had previously known under the
chaotic sway of hundreds of independent chiefs. I have often main-
tained, and believe I have been justified in so doing, that in no other
colonial enterprise, even in twice the time, had such an extent of
territory been opened up and brought more or less within the range of
ordered government. The drink traffic had been effectually restrained
within the narrowest possible limits on the coast line; cannibalism and
the slave trade were no longer dominating the land and flaunting them-
selves everywhere, but, greatly diminished by the persistently repressive
action of the law, were being driven into dark corners and hiding-
places ; and, most arduous work of all, the wave of Arab conquest
which I met in 1884, and which by that time had swept from Zanzibar
to Ujiji and on to Stanley Falls, and would undoubtedly have over-
whelmed the Congo valley right down to the sea, was swept back by
the forces organized by King Leopold, and the death-blow given to the
Arab domination in Central Africa.
" Seeing these splendid accomplishments, it would, indeed, have
been strange if, when fitting opportunities offered themselves, I had
failed to express my appreciation of the benefits conferred upon the
people. But it was not on account of the people alone that I felt
called upon to express my satisfaction, for routes had been opened that
had previously been closed to us, a fleet of steamers had been carried
overland round the cataracts and placed on the upper river, and the
railway to bring this fleet into direct steam communication with the
ocean was half completed. The middlemen who had so long barred
the way against missionaries, and who had not hesitated to use their
guns (on one occasion seriously wounding my colleague, and more than
once making me their prisoner), had been overcome, and a way made
clear for us right into the heart of the continent. Having personally
realized such very tangible advantages, I could not withhold my poor
meed of praise. I was sincerely grateful, and said so. King Leopold's
reputation as a wise ruler had been eminently maintained, and his
claims as a philanthropist had not been traversed. Single-handed he
had accomplished more than would have been possible for the Colonial
Office of one of the Great Powers. It is largely forgotten, I imagine,
how great was the storm that was raised by his devotion to Congo
interests, and how serious at times was the opposition of his own
people as well as that of some of the Foreign Powers.
JOURNEY TO UNDISCOVERED BOURNE 377
" It had been my privilege to take some small part in the opening
up of the country, and in helping forward the development that had
taken place. The change was such as would have gladdened the heart
of any man able to compare, as I could, the early days of the Congo
State with the chaos that had preceded it, and I was proud to wear the
decorations of the monarch who had initiated the enterprise and who
had laboured and spent, as King Leopold had done, to secure its
success. I will not say that I failed to recognize that the autocrat of
the Congo was but mortal, and that it was possible for him to make
mistakes. Nor could I altogether shut my eyes to hints of ' self-seek-
ing' which was said to lie behind all this philanthropy, beneficence,
and magnificent enterprise ; but I was firmly convinced that if His
Majesty sought anything beyond the advantage of the Congo people,
it was but the benefit of his Belgian subjects, whose great need, like the
Briton's, is an open market for the products of their labour.
THE LAST TEN YEARS
1 894-1904
" Up to that time ( 1 894) no year had produced so much as 5 per
cent of the rubber which since 1900 has figured as the annual yield.
With the remarkable development of the rubber returns that has
characterized the past ten years, there commenced to be heard com-
plaints of the harsh treatment of the natives in the collection of the
taxes. That a country nearly as big as all Latin and Teutonic Europe
should continue to be administered on the small dues levied on com-
merce and on the subsidies granted by the King out of his privy purse,
and by the Belgian people, without the natives contributing thereto,
was not reasonable. But taxes were a new, strange feature in native
life (Congo people do not understand anything even about paying
rent), and so when the tax-gatherer went his rounds armed with a rifle,
it led to trouble. In 1895 and 1896, in consequence of the barbarous
methods adopted by some of the agents of the State, there was a
strong protest. The higher authorities were incredulous, the majority
of them, I believe, sincerely so, and doubt was cast upon the evidence.
Some of the favourable statements I had made regarding the benefits
following Congo State administration were adduced to prove the
impossibility of such things ; and I had to write to the effect that
whatever I had written concerning other matters, I was convinced that
the evidence as regards some of the most serious charges was in every
way trustworthy. [My letter was published in The Times, and was quoted
by Sir Charles Dilke in the Congo debate of May 1903 as helping to sub-
stantiate the present charges against the State — this by way of proving
that I am not the blind partisan of the Congo Government so many seem
to think.] Upon investigation the outrages referred to were followed by
a series of heavy sentences as well as by new legislation to prevent
their recurrence, and, also, by the constitution of a Commission for
the protection of the natives. 1 As by the time the Commission was
1 " Mr. Grenfell . . . was one of that grand old school of British missionaries
whose loss will be an absolutely irreparable one to the cause of humanity and the
progress of white rule in Africa. The appointment of the Royal Commission of
378 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
able to meet the sentences had been passed and the new repressive
measures had come into force, there was such an improvement in
the outlook that both my colleague (Bentley) and myself, who were
members of the Commission, realized that so far as the range of our
observation enabled us to judge, the measures taken by the State were
effective — sane men, we felt sure, would not break the laws and risk
such sentences. So, after the second sitting of the Commission, we
contented ourselves by acting individually, always finding the authorities
to whom we appealed ready to intervene in the comparatively minor
miscarriages which from time to time came to our notice. So far as
we could judge, the Government was sincerely trying to prevent the
recurrence of the previous scandals ; though, now and then, it is true,
we heard rumblings of more or less serious import from the outlying
districts beyond our ken. These always reached us as the outcome
of a 'state of war'; and, as even civilized war is such a ghastly
business, it was not unnatural to find these rumours associated with
hideous details ; but whether these things were really the outcome
of war, or whether the war was justifiable or not, were matters quite
beyond the mere amateur Commissioners who were hundreds of miles
away. The Commission ceased to exist in March 1903.
" The revelations concerning cruelties inflicted upon the people
that were made known by Consul Casement, by the Rev. J. H. Weeks,
and others of my colleagues at the close of 1903 compelled me to
believe in the existence of a condition of affairs that I had come to
regard as belonging entirely to the old regime, and impossible under
the new. It was with nothing less than the most profound consternation
that I was compelled to accept the evidence and to believe what
looked like the incredible.
" So far as repressive legislation and deterrent sentences are con-
cerned, I believe the Government has done its utmost. But, so long as
human nature remains what it is, and the present system continues of
devolving immense powers upon men in isolated positions, far removed
from the restraints of civilization and helpful comradeship, so long,
I am now convinced, will the results that have awakened such an
outburst of feeling be found to follow. Defenders of the Government
say these terrible things are the acts of madmen, for which the
Government is not to be condemned either as barbarous or incapable.
Madness is the only hypothesis for explaining the insensate cruelty
and bestiality which figure so prominently in the charges made, and,
because of the madmen it has developed, the present system stands
condemned. Seeing the number of lonely outposts occupied by
single white men with a mere handful of native soldiers in the
midst of half- subjugated and altogether cruel and superstitious
people, it would not be surprising if more madness came to light.
It is the system that is to be condemned rather than the poor in-
dividual, who, overcome by his fever-heightened fears, loses control
Inquiry was directly due to his personal representation. The Government of the
Independent State which had been deaf to the outcry of those whom rightly or
wrongly it regarded as prejudiced parties, promptly acceded to the request of one
whom it was bound to acknowledge as entirely impartial and reasonable-minded."
(Viscount Mountmorres.)
JOURNEY TO UNDISCOVERED BOURNE 379
of himself, and resorts to awe-inspiring acts of vengeance to uphold
his authority.
" I cannot believe that those in power in Brussels, or Boma, or many
of the local centres of administration, either knew or in any way
endorsed these terrible things that have been done in their name. The
thing is, to convince them that these crimes are the natural outcome of
the system that, having regard to recent sentences passed upon the
accused, is proving itself so utterly wrong. The same system would
have wrecked a British, or a French, or a German colony before this,
and I feel sure that as soon as the Congo becomes in reality a Belgian
colony, great and important changes must inevitably follow.
207. RUBBER VICTIMS. NATIVES BROUGHT TO THE BAPTIST MISSION FOR TREAT-
MENT AFTER OUTRAGES BY AGENTS OF CONCESSIONNAIRE COMPANIES
" The Sovereign of the Congo Independent State, unfettered by a
Chamber of Representatives, has accomplished great things, and, with
marvellous skill, has safely steered the State through the dangerous
shoals that imperilled its very existence ; but the recent apparent
subjugation of the original ideals to the exigencies of dividend-declar-
ing concessions, and the interests of financiers, threatens the most
disastrous exhaustion of the country, and to rob His Majesty of his
claim to the foremost place among the friends of Africa, and of a
down-trodden, long-suffering people.
" If I could believe, as so many appear to do, that His Majesty was
careless of the people so long as the rubber came in, and that his chief
aim was ' dividends,' I should have to join with those who accuse him
of having culpably failed of the great and high purposes which secured
3 8o GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
for him the support of the signatory Powers in the carrying out of his
philanthropic plans for the civilization of the Congo valley. As yet I
cannot bring myself to believe that King Leopold participates person-
ally in the profits of the rubber trade, or that he realizes to anything
like an adequate degree the sorrows that have been inflicted on his
people. . . .
" So far as one can judge, the primary origin of the charges being
levelled against the State is to be found in the feverish haste to get
produce out of the country. I know that expenses have to be met ;
the great need of the country is administration, and I realize very
clearly the responsibility of the people to contribute thereto. If the
population was anything like so great as was estimated a few years ago,
and if the taxes could only be equally distributed, it would involve but
an insignificant burden to raise the present cost of government. It now
appears that the population was greatly over-estimated, and also that
the present death-rate in many districts is nothing less than appalling.
On the thousand miles of waterway (two thousand miles of river bank)
between Leopoldville and Stanleyville, after counting the houses and
making a liberal allowance for each, I very much doubt if there are a
hundred thousand people in all the riverain towns and villages. I have
it as the serious statement of one in authority that on the Ngiri River,
from which I have just returned, there has been a loss of 60 per cent
of the population during the past twelve months. (The Ngiri is an
affluent of the Mubangi and drains the peninsula between that river
and the Congo.) Undoubtedly, ' sleep-sickness ' accounts for much,
but not for all the losses. The other day a deputation of local chiefs
waited upon me to ask if I could not help them out of the continual
anxiety ('lokekete') in which they lived by reason of the uncertainty
as to what might be demanded of them by the representatives of the
State. Said they : ' Trouble of heart is killing us faster than sickness,'
and to those who know how impressionable the Bantu is, it needs no
explanation. I believe there is now a very general readiness among
the people to pay taxes, but they want to know just how much they are
liable for, either in money, labour, or * kind,' and to have some sort of
quittance when they have paid to secure them from further demands
during the current year. The present system, or rather, lack of system,
not only saps their vitality by reason of its vexatious uncertainties, but
destroys all initiative — men are afraid to build brick houses lest they
should have to make bricks for the State, and afraid to hunt or fish lest
they should be compelled to fish and hunt for the soldiers. A fortnight
ago orders were issued that the district from which I am writing should
be relieved of all taxation, but this makes these nervous people all the
more certain there is some new and unwelcome development in store.
Many of the people are poor, foolish children, and very often very lazy,
but all this is a reason for stimulating their enterprise by securing to
them the rewards of their labour, and for limiting the Government
demands within well-defined boundaries beyond the control of soldiers
and subordinate officials.
" Having lived more than half of my life in Africa, and being cir-
cumstanced as I am, the interests of no country count with me for more
than those of the country in which I have expended so much of my
JOURNEY TO UNDISCOVERED BOURNE 381
life and energy. The Congo State has had no more sympathetic partisan
than myself, and now for me to find things going wrong is a great and
bitter disappointment. However, I will not abandon the hope that
upon the fuller light which should follow the present investigations,
things may yet be so ordered that some of the ideals of the founders
may after all be realized, and the Congo State become, what it fairly
set out to be, a blessing to the people."
20S. grenfell's signature
At the third general Conference of Evangelical Missionaries
held at Kinshasa, Stanley Pool, January 9th 1906, Grenfell, after
alluding to the recent obstacles placed in his way by the Congo
State ' which had effectually barred the further progress of his
mission,' went on to make the following statements : —
" When I first came to Congo there was no civilized power ; the
traders were a law unto themselves, and I had seen the evils of this at
the Cameroons. There was then not a single missionary of the Cross
in the land. I hailed the advent of a European power. I rejoiced in
the prospect of better times. I saw the fall of the Arabs ; I saw the
door closed against strong drink, and when His Majesty bestowed his
decorations upon me I was proud to wear them.
" But when change of regime came, from philanthropy to self-seek-
ing of the basest and most cruel kind, I was no longer proud of the
decorations.
" We are serving a great Master. We are on the winning side.
Victory is not uncertain. Truth is strong and must prevail. We are
checked, but not disheartened."
This conference was attended by missionaries from Great
Britain, the United States, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Norway,
and Denmark, and amongst other business a resolution was
passed and signed by fifty-two of the delegates present (in-
cluding Grenfell) condemning the system of oppression still in
force, which entailed so many atrocities ; and protesting em-
phatically against the refusal of the State authorities to sell
sites for mission stations, a refusal which was in flat contradic-
tion to the General Act of the Conference of Berlin.
CHAPTER XVI
CONGOLAND BEFORE THE WHITE MAN RULED
1^0 supplement Grenfell's survey of Congoland under
native rule, before the white man had interfered with
the conditions of native life or had attempted to alter
native customs for good or ill, I append a number of extracts
from his diaries and notebooks, or from those of Bentley or
other Baptist missionaries, besides reminiscences of my own ;
or information collected by Torday from Belgian and French
missionaries or employes of the State, or from his own re-
searches. I shall limit myself in this chapter to dealing with
three of the principal evils of Congoland — Burial Murders,
Witchcraft Persecutions, and Cannibalism. Slavery has been
already touched on in previous chapters. Commercial dis-
abilities and hindrance to free travel also require an allusion.
In their impatience at the wrongdoing or the- rapacity of the
white man, critics of all recent European enterprise in Africa —
north, east, south, west, and central — are apt to assume that
the natives of that Dark Continent led happy, contented lives
before the evil day of submission to our rule. This is the
reverse of true : though a demonstration of their previous
Reign of Terror is no excuse for the misery of the Leopoldian
regime.
Btirial Murders.
It must be remembered that in the interior Congo basin
north of about 6° S. Lat. and south of the Muhammadan
regions, no free man or woman of any importance could be
buried without the accompanying sacrifice of one or many
adult men or women. Believing in a life after the grave, these
grimly logical people argued that the dead notability could not
be ushered into the spirit world alone. There must be a
servant or a wife- -in the case of a chief or chieftainess multi-
tudes of retainers — to accompany the dead woman or man and
to carry on the spirit life as nearly as possible on the lines of
the terrestrial existence. Implements, utensils, pottery, cloth,
beads, tobacco were similarly interred — usually after being
382
'i !I .
T^ :
BEFORE THE WHITE MAN RULED 385
broken, torn, bent, or " killed." The waste of property in
trade goods or ivory occasioned by a chiefs death was quite
onerous to the community.
As the slaves or wives of the deceased were by no means
willing to die in the prime of life — and often by cruel means —
they were perpetually seeking to evade this last duty to master
mi I _ I I , 1
2IO. BOLOBO CHIEFS MUNGULU AND MUKOKO
or husband by running away — in old days, to a neighbouring
chief, but more recently to the nearest missionary or State
official. Here are some extracts from Grenfell's diary : — ■
" Bolobo justice. (December 1888.) Bolobo chiefs are killing their
people off very fast. We have only been away a month this time, and
James gives us a terrible list of deaths at burials or in punishment of
witchcraft. Thieves are sometimes sold for stealing a root of manioc,
or are punished by gagging with a stick thrust through the flesh of the
-2 c
3 86 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
cheeks. Sometimes they are first tormented by having their bodies
rubbed with pepper, and then, 'off with their heads, and into the river.'
"3rd of June 1889. A woman from Moyambula's ran here. Her
nkulu mwene (great mistress) lay dead, and the chief was waiting for
some one to kill and bury with her — was not able to buy a new slave.
Therefore this woman was to be killed. We say we can do nothing.
This evening the chief comes, having- been told that his woman Msina
is here. He wants us to put the woman in his hands. We say no, he
must take her. She says, ' I won't go.' We say, ' Come to-morrow
and talk.'
" 4th of June. The chief of the above-named woman comes, asking
3.000 brass rods for the runaway — a lot of talk. We do not want her.
She says, ' I won't go.' Kiala, one of our ransomed people (the one who
came wounded from a fight, and whose bullet has only just come out),
says he will pay 1,000 brass rods for her if we will let him work it out.
He is a good fellow. We ultimately arranged the bargain for 1,500
brass rods.
"5th of July 1889. A man and a woman have been killed to-day
at Mungulu's to accompany his dead wife, Mbonjeka.
"7th of July 1889. We hear there are two people tied up at
Mungulu's, ready to be buried alive with Mbonjeka's corpse. The man
killed yesterday was decapitated and his body thrown into the river.
His head was buried, and will be produced amongst others in a week or
two's time to adorn the roof of one of Mungulu's houses. The woman
killed yesterday was beaten to death with sticks. . . . July 7. Having
heard at 3.15 that Mungulu was just about to bury Mboiyaka,
Miss Silvey, James and his wife, and I started to protest against
burying the two victims with the corpse. We arrived just as the
executioner (a well-known character with a wild maniacal look always
present on his face) was untying the young woman from the post to
which she had been made fast. Seeing us, he hurriedly picked her up
in his arms, and carried her into the house where the grave had been
dug. I followed him, and found the young man who was to be her
fellow-victim already seated by the side of the grave and next to the
big bundle (like a roll of carpet two yards long and one thick) which
had been formed by tying cloth round the corpse. Without thinking
what I was to say or how I should say it, I arraigned the old chief for
his conduct in such vigorous terms that he left the victims, the execu-
tioner, and myself inside the house (out of which the end had been
taken) and retreated through the wondering crowd. Having exhausted
my stock of Kibangi, I talked very strongly to James, and got him to
explain to the onlookers that God who had given life would call to
account those who took it away : that we should all meet again at the
judgment seat of God, who would ask about these poor people now
about to be killed : that now I had spoken to them they could not
excuse themselves by saying they did not know. One of Mungulu's
friends took up the matter and said, ' But are these people your friends ?
Are they the people of this country ? Are they not strangers, and have
we not bought them ? ' We reiterated, that God had said, ' Thou shalt
not kill,' and that if they broke the law they would have to suffer for
it, and they would remember I had given them warning. Then old
fA^ftd h»^.-J* '—*' ^ "'"" "'" ""**" J '''
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211. SPECIMEN OF PAGE FROM GRENFELl/S DIARY WRITTEN IN PENCIL
388 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Mungulu came out, and I gave him another pelting with hard words ;
my heart was very hot within me to see the tears of the poor crying
victims of such cruel customs. Once more the chief retreated, and
James addressed the people again and warned all there plainly of God's
law and their breaking it. Mungulu again came back, and I once more
told him he would have to meet these poor people and me before God's
throne and then answer for their lives. Poor old man ! He very visibly
quailed ; but what could he do — submit to mere words over a belief he
had sucked in with his mother's milk, and yield momentarily to a
stranger's threat, to a far-off contingency ? No. We had not turned
our backs more than a few seconds (we only prolonged the misery of
the poor victims by waiting) when they were thrown into the grave and
the corpse placed on their bodies. They were speedily covered in and
buried alive."
On the 13th of April 1890 he writes : —
" We hear from the woman Mungolo that on Manga being dead
three people were killed yesterday, and that four more are tied up ready
for to-day. Ngoie and Mungulu are evidently uncomfortable and
hurried in their communications with us, knowing our abhorrence of
such things, and fearing our lecturing them. But what is the use?
Even the State was unable to prevent people being killed when Mata
Bwiki died. For the Commissaire saw him buried by his own Hausas ;
but at night the natives dug him up and put the bodies of five victims
with the corpse in the grave, as it was too great a shame to let a big
man like Bwiki be buried in that fashion. The white man having come,
and seeing the grave not quite filled in, inquired what they were doing.
' Oh, nothing, only putting the earth in properly ; the Hausas did not
do it right' Force cannot stop it all at once. The people need to
learn the sanctity of life and the folly and sin of such things before
they become things of the past. Even at Lukolela, when Mangaba
died they made the white man believe no one had been killed ; but it
turned out later that several victims were sacrificed."
[Ibaka, the principal chief of Bolobo, 1 had died.] On the
15th of April 1889 Grenfell writes: —
" James tells me that some eight people have been killed to accom-
pany Ibaka. The women had a woman given to them to kill. They
despatched her with their hoes, as their custom is. Two or three were
buried alive, others beaten to death with sticks, and one or two were
drowned. The chief of Ntsi Bolobo died two days after Ibaka. Ibaka
said they were to kill no Mbosi people for him, as he came from that
river himself.
" Akanja of Manga is going to take off his mourning for his wife
to-morrow, so has tied up a poor slave (a woman), who is going to be
killed to celebrate the event."
1 To whom considerable reference is made in the present writer's work, The
River Congo, from its Mouth to Bolobo.
BEFORE THE WHITE MAN RULED
389
On the 17th of June 1890 Grenfell writes : —
" Ngoie three days after we left brought a slave to sell to our station.
James would not buy. In less than five minutes the slave's head was
off. Stapleton went round and saw the body lying on the beach — the
head had been
severed with one
clean blow of
the execution-
er's knife."
"One of
B oyambula's
men has lost his
wife just re-
cently, and has
killed nine
slaves, buried
five and thrown
four into the
river. Bolobo
people say,
' Congo water is
no good,' and
come to our
well. No won-
der they don't
drink the river
water ! "
On the
25th of Au-
'gust 1894,
Mungulu, of
whom there is
so much to-do
in previous ex-
tracts, himself
died, and was
himself buried
with several
slaves and
possibly one or
two wives. Others of his wives and slaves took refuge at the
Mission. He was probably the last chief of Bolobo able to
observe the old ceremonies. Similar stories of burial murders
all over the northern half of the Congo basin have been told by
other missionaries or State officials.
An equal terror in native life, and one of wider, more
212. IBAKA, THE PRINCIPAL CHIEF OF BOLOBO IN THE
'EIGHTIES OF THE LAST CENTURY
(Sketched by Sir Harry Johnston in 1883.)
39Q GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
universal extent than burial sacrifices or cannibalism, was both
the belief in witchcraft and the constant imposition of cruel,
usually fatal, ordeals on persons accused of occult powers. This
" smelling-out " of witches in southern and eastern Bantu Africa
has been excused by
some writers because
the practice of witch-
craft in so much of
. Bantu Africa was con-
nected with unwhole-
some secret or masonic
societies, and also with
the disgusting practice
of corpse-eating. 1
But, except perhaps
in the cataract region
of the Congo or in
Lundaland, native
society was not much
shocked at the idea of
eating dead bodies.
The trial and punish-
ment of wizards was a
much older practice,
due to the negro's sus-
ceptibility tohypnotism
and hypnotic sugges-
tions, his acute dread
of the unseen forces
around him ; and also,
it must be added, to
the knowledge of ve©e-
table poisons among
old men and women
which they frequently
misused to kill those
whose death was de-
sired. Over all Central
Africa south of the Muhammadan zone and north of the
Zambezi twenty years ago it was almost impossible in native
belief to die " naturally." A stroke of lightning, an earth-
quake, a hurricane might it is true be attributed directly to
1 In Nyasaland and Uganda, until quite recently, many "witches" or "wizards"
were veritable ghouls.
213. NGOIE, A CHIEF OF BOLOBO (1894), MUCH
REFERRED TO IN GRENFELL'S DIARIES (VIDE
PAGES 388-9)
BEFORE THE WHITE MAN RULED 391
the "Act of God," but any other death-dealing incident on
a less grandiose scale was due to witchcraft. If a man or
woman was killed by a crocodile, leopard, buffalo, elephant, or
python, then the animal in question was a witch in disguise
or had been spiritually directed by the witch. 1 All illness except
possibly extreme old age was attributed to witchcraft. Conse-
quently after every death from disease or accident one or more
persons must be identified as witches and either made to
undergo an ordeal — often fatal — or, if public opinion was much
excited, be killed at sight, in order that their intestines might be
searched for the conclusive proof of witchcraft — the presence of
a gall-bladder or bile-gland. 2 As every normal human being
has a gall-bladder all accused and slaughtered persons were
proved to be witches.
The different kinds of ordeal will be described in another
chapter, but a few typical instances might be quoted here from
Bentley and Grenfell regarding the treatment of persons ac-
cused of witchcraft.
"5th of July 1889. Echara killed at Manga's for witchcraft.
Ekunangubo's men had died recently, and it was said to be Echara's fault.
Ekunangubo is one of the Manga Town chiefs, and had killed Echara's
mother where our own station now stands (the old site of Manga Town).
Echara himself on being opened after his death did not possess the
internal marks of a witch, which are eagerly sought for and exhibited
as proof of the truth of the charge. (What this is exactly, I do not
know, but it seems to be some not unusual intestinal growth which can
be extracted and exhibited. I remember the ' witch ' out of Ngaliema's
sister was hung up on a pole in the town, and was held to be sufficient
justification for Ngaliema 3 having put his sister to death.) In Echara's
case, this evidence not having been forthcoming, his friends are greatly
excited, and reprisals are not unlikely."
" A character for meanness, refusing to share one's belongings with
anyone who may ask for them, or success in trade and growing wealth,
unusual skill as a craftsman, any ability above the ordinary, surely
makes a man a witch in the eyes of his fellows." (Bentley.)
An old man who outlives his generation becomes a witch
without doubt in the eyes of the people. Where a witch-doctor
is found out cheating or his accusations make life intolerable,
he is occasionally set upon and killed. This is sometimes done
by breaking his arms and legs with a club and then throwing
him down into a chasm or pit where he starves to death.
1 See p. 494.
2 The Likundu of the northern Congo.
3 Ngaliema was the great Bateke chief of Ntamo (Leopoldville).
392 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
In a case reported by Bentley, a man was so indignant with
the witch-doctor at being accused that he took his gun and shot
him on the spot. He had to pay a fine of twenty slaves to the
doctor's relatives as blood-money, but no witch-finder ventured
to indicate him after that.
Witches, as already stated, are supposed to possess the
power of assuming other forms. They may as crocodiles or
leopards seize and devour human beings, toss them as buffaloes,
or crush them as elephants, or they may assume the form of
a small goblin, only visible to the eyes of the haunted person,
and follow about their predestined victim, singing, staring,
gibbering at him, drawing his life out of him by some magnetic
process, so that at last the man falls sick and dies. This pro-
cess on the Lower Congo is, according to Bentley, called fina.
" Engwa, our late rowdy Bangala, has a wen on his neck (so we
hear). Manjombi is accused of witching him, and has had to throw
150 brass rods into the river to his nkoli (crocodile) to beg the nkoli not
to proceed with eating Engwa as per previous arrangement." (Grenfell).
" Bolobo, 31st December 1893. Esumbi, the Nganga, is still at his
work, unearthing witches, though happily his last two accusations, now
four days old, have not yet resulted in deaths. To-day he says, ' What
is the use of my showing the witches if you do not kill them?' The
Mpinjo people are calling him to-day to ascertain who it was that
'bought' the buffalo which killed one of their women in the farm
yesterday. He (Esumbi) had a row with his brother yesterday,
and broke up the monganga (medicine) he had provided him with.
By means of these charms the brother had been able to set up
and carry on a branch of the business, Bolobo being a big place, and
furnishing more clients than Esumbi could attend to. The unwilling-
ness of the brother to settle up accounts was at the bottom of the row,
but the breaking of the charms brought him to reason, and the affair is
patched up. Esumbi declares he will go back to his home near Equator
Station and send another to take his place, who shall be well posted up
in the news of the place no doubt. Esumbi has reaped a fine harvest :
he seems to count only in thousands of brass rods. He has been at the
bottom of no one knows how many deaths during the last two months.
I fear that twenty is far below the mark, and lots of misery for survivors
— poor people ! " (Grenfell.)
"July 23 1894. Bokatula died three or four days ago, and we have
been having great excitement — people running away for fear of being
buried alive or killed to grace the funeral obsequies. He is said to have
died as nkila — the nkila being in this instance the price paid by his son
for some charm, the witch-doctor having included the father's life in the
price. Bokatula himself not so long ago went to a famous doctor for
medicine to get rich. As nkila he had to pay three lives, and shortly
after three of his people died, it is said of poison. The doctor demands
BEFORE THE WHITE MAN RULED 393
at times the nearest relatives, and the price must be paid ; for if a man
sets his mind on the possession of a charm, what will he not give ? "
(Grenfell.)
Here is a note from Professor Halkin's study of the
Ababua people of the Bomokandi-Wele— in the far north of
the Congo State. 1
Only death from old age is considered as natural ; if young
people die it is believed that they have been killed by some one
possessed by " likundu " (a foreign word), which corresponds to the evil
2(4. B.M.S. MISSION CHURCH AT BOLOBO
eye, and the suspected individual is submitted to a poison ordeal. Dr.
Vedy [quoted by Professor Halkin] reported cases where the accused
was first killed, and then his entrails searched for the " likundu," which
is always found, as it is the gall-bladder.
Bentley thus describes the process of divination and the
discovery of a witch enacted at San Salvador soon after the
Mission was established there : —
"In the early morning we heard a strange bellowing noise, far out in
the jungle, along the western road. Now and then it stopped, and we
heard it coming from some nearer point. It was some time before we
1 Quelques fieuplades du district de I'Uele, Professor Joseph Halkin, Liege.
394 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
could ascertain what it was even, much less know the business in
hand. We learned that it was a dingwinti drum. Presently we heard
it at the entrance of the town, near our house. We went to see
what was on. A woman and several young men were sitting in the
footpath with the bellowing instrument. [A friction drum. — H. H. J.]
Its construction was simple : it was an empty powder barrel about
fourteen inches high by seven inches in diameter. One end of the
barrel was open ; over the other end a skin was tightly stretched.
In the centre of the skin was a string, and to this was attached a
short piece of cane. The player was holding the drum in his feet,
and letting the piece of cane slip between his wet fingers, as he
pulled them down over it, hand over hand. The slipping of his
'Ht'fki.
'i-Miwk
J
-Jk-
Ml it = .
*j$$s
tB?h
i»«. ! m
&*:
215. BAPTIST MISSION CHURCH, SAN SALVADOR
fingers down the cane set up a vibration of the tympanum of the drum,
and there issued a loud, unearthly bellowing noise. The man who was
playing it was continually making grimaces. This slow approach of
the doctor was a very impressive preface to the day's proceedings.
" About an hour later we heard that all the people were gathered in
an open space in the town ; a witch-doctor had come to find the witch
who had caused the death of a relative of the king. We went to see
what was in process, not knowing how far we might have to interfere.
We were invited to retire, but would not understand the wish, and took
our seats in a convenient position.
" The woman who had been seen earlier in the morning sitting in
the path beside the bellowing drum was a noted doctor, who was re-
tiring from the business ; she was that morning completing the initia-
tion of a young man who had bought the fetish and the ' goodwill'
She sat behind the doctor, and from time to time told him what to do.
BEFORE THE WHITE MAN RULED 395
" The doctor had whitened his face with pipe-clay, the neighbour-
hood of one of his eyes was bright with red ochre, the other was yellow ;
his arms also were smeared with pipe-clay. Burnt cork has a decidedly
transforming effect when applied over a white face ; still more astonish-
ing is the effect of pipe-clay on a black face and body. What with
pipe-clay and the coloured ochres the doctor was very hideous. The
effect was heightened by continual monkey-like grimaces, the rolling of
the eyes, and peeping into his fetish bundles. He shook his rattle,
chattered and gibbered, fidgeted with his fetishes, and from time to
time spoke to the people ; they expressed their horror of the crime, or
joined in the imprecations, by lifting up and extending the right hand
above the head. The performance continued somewhat monotonously
for nearly two hours. Our presence evidently embarrassed the doctor
considerably; sometimes he paused and seemed loth to proceed, discuss-
ing with the woman and those who had come with him. Once or
twice he complained of our presence, and wished us to go, but we pre-
ferred to sit the performance out. Some of the more intelligent among
the townsfolk were ashamed of the affair, but all this made it more
necessary for us to remain. At last the time for the actual divination
came. The doctor worked himself up into a state of excitement, and a
dozen or twenty people were placed forward. The doctor danced,
rattled his rattles, and raved, and at length all of those brought forward
retired but two ; one of these was the witch. The excitement was
great. After more raving and incantation a pot of water was spilt on
the ground. Two streams trickled for some distance, and in some way,
from the behaviour of the water, the decision was made — a slave of the
king, one of the two left before the doctor, was declared the witch. He
protested his innocence, and there was some excited talk, but the
assembly broke up without more devilry. Our presence doubtless con-
siderably modified the result. The man was fined, but nothing else
followed.
" This was the last time that the woman took part in witch-doctor-
ing. Having thus retired from the business she told some of her friends
that she had denounced two hundred people as witches, but of these
only sixty were really witches. It is not fully clear what she meant by
this statement, but this is certain, that one hundred and forty were
denounced without any real reason, as far as she knew ; possibly some-
thing in the divination made her feel sure of the sixty. Her son came
into our school at San Salvador later on, and became a member of the
Church." {Pioneering on the Congo.)
There was no freedom of commerce and of transit in the
Congo basin before the advent of the European as a ruler.
Just as the mountain region which lay between the vast
lake-like basin of the Congo and the sea-coast was arranged in
a series of terraces and escarpments, each of which had to be
scaled in turn by the explorer, so the European who might wish
to exchange products with the people of the far interior had to
overcome — if he could — the serried rows of middlemen tribes
that lay between the coast-belt and the rich interior. On the
396 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
south of the Lower Congo there were different tribes of Kongo
peoples — the people of Boma, of Noki, of San Salvador, the
people of Makuta and of Zombo. On the north bank there
were the Basundi and the Babwende before the Bateke were
reached. Each tribe exacted a heavy toll of the goods that
passed through its territory. Farther south, along the Kwango
River, there were jealous peoples that barred direct access to
the Mwata Yanvo's kingdom. In the Lunda territories of the
Mwato Yanvo, trade was less hampered, it is true, once the big
.X J ;" ' ,• • • , ■ " '
2l6. HENRIQUE DE CARVALHO STATION IN EASTERN ANGOLA
Founded in 1884 to protect Portuguese traders with the Lunda country.
chiefs received a heavy present. But this was rather the happy
fate of powerful expeditions under mulatto Portuguese. The
humbler traders — educated negroes — coming from the settled
territories of Portuguese West Africa were frequently plundered
and despoiled of their goods, and kept in captivity for many
weary months till they had ransomed themselves by the whole
of their pack. Grenfell gives numerous instances of this kind,
told to him by the Ambaquistas — the civilized trading negroes
of Ambaka in Angola.
On the main Congo the Bayanzi or Babangi exchanged
products with the Bateke and Bakongo on Stanley Pool.
Higher up the river they would have to turn over trade to
BEFORE THE WHITE MAN RULED 397
the Bangala. These again would be stopped by the Basoko,
the Basoko by the Bagenya, and so forth. About the only
moderately unrestricted commerce was that in slaves intended
for the cannibal markets of the Mubangi.
As to freedom of transit in the pre-State days, the follow-
ing extract from my own diary in November 1882 is a sufficient
illustration of what might befall the traveller anywhere in the
Congo basin who was not at the head of a powerful caravan.
(I was leaving the mission station of Palabala to proceed
to Kongo dia lemba.)
" At breakfast this morning the missionaries 1 said, ' You had better
leave to-day, Saturday, because we do not like to see Europeans
starting for a journey on a Sunday ; it seems to contradict our teach-
ing.' Three carriers present themselves from the village, accompanied
by a chief. Before they will start I must present them with the value
of two guns each and give ' half a gun ' to the chief. ' But you cannot
go till you have seen King Kangumpaka.' King Kangumpaka arrives,
trembling with anger, offended at not having been apprised earlier of
my intention to start. Must have fifteen shillings' worth of cloth
before I leave the town. 'Can I go then?' 'Perhaps (he says), but I
cannot help you with carriers unless you give a present to the other king.'
I refuse. ' Very well, good-bye.' I try to start with my own carriers
from Underbill. No, they will not go without the king's permission.
I sit down to breakfast in despair, cursing the whole system of human
porterage. After breakfast, not liking to give up without a struggle, I
pay the king a visit with Mr. White. Like the Sibylline Books, the
demand increases with each refusal. Now he wants four ' guns ' of
cloth and five bottles of rum. I refuse. The king is making inkimba
caps, and he goes on tranquilly with his work, showing Mr. White
with childish pride the funny gewgaws he has made. ... At length I
agree to give him a 'book' for four 'guns' 2 and one bottle of rum. Now
I may go. However, there is still a difficulty about the extra carriers,
so I start off with my five original porters from Underbill, leaving some
of my luggage behind. (Here follows a description of the route.)
We arrive at a sort of market-place, whence many paths diverge. I
take one that seems a continuation of the former road, and walk on
with confidence till sunset, soon after which we reach Kongo dia lemba,
and send to ask if we may sleep in the town. The natives refuse,
saying that it is not the custom for any white man to do so, so I have
to camp out by the wayside.
" At five (the next morning) we prepare to be off, when several men
come out of the town and want to know what present I am going to
give the woman chief of Kongo dia lemba. After chaffering for some
time they demand through my head carrier (who interprets into
Portuguese) so exorbitant an amount that I refuse. Whereupon they
will not let me pass further along the road. Disgusted and wet, and
1 Of the Livingstone Inland Mission.
2 A " gun " in those days meant about 4s. in cloth or trade goods.
398 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
feeling that this will be the order of the day at every village I pass
through, I reluctantly retrace my steps to Palabala."
"It is a common trick" (writes Grenfell on the Lunda expedition)
" when a caravan is passing through a district to place one or two corn-
cobs on the road and watch for the men. who pick them up. One or
other of the passers-by of the strangers' caravan is sure to pick up this
inoffensive-looking cob ; when the watcher pounces on his load and
does not let it go again till the 'flagrant robbery' has been atoned for
by a heavy payment, the payment being gauged by the relative strength
of the caravan to that of the neighbouring town : as the natives say,
' The strong take much, the stronger more.' "
Cannibalism may have existed intermittently and inherently
in the human race from that almost pre-human period when
Pithecanthropos was constrained by the struggle for existence
to become definitely carnivorous, thus following the same de-
velopment in diet as the rat, squirrel, lemming, pig, and cer-
tain domestic breeds of cattle and sheep. But this practice
of eating one's own species is an aberration even among pro-
fessed carnivores, and cannibalism is a vice rather than a
normal instinct, a vice possibly of relatively recent growth
among the populations of the Congo basin. It seems probable
that the forest pygmies of Central Africa and the Bushmen
and Hottentots of South Africa were not — are not normally
now — cannibals. The Bantu negroes have been peculiarly
prone to eating human flesh. The Nile negroes are almost
exempt from this failing, historically and actually, though the
immunity may not go back many centuries.
Cannibalism of the normal kind — the eating of freshly killed
human beings — is only recently extinct in South-East and East
Africa. It still lingers in holes and corners, 1 and also in the nasty
form of devouring putrefying corpses. 2 During warfare the
East African Bantu can still be wrought up by excitement to
eat portions of their dead enemies. But for all practical purposes
cannibalism has become extinct in Central Africa outside the limits
of the Congo basin, except in a narrow fringe of the Bahr-al-
Ghazal region along the Congo water-parting. It lingers in the
hinterland of the Gaboon and Cameroons to the limits of the
Shari and Benue basins, breaks out, however, in the southern
Benue and Cross River countries, still rages in the Niger delta,
and elsewhere, westwards, crops up in the French Ivory Coast, in
1 Uganda, parts of German East Africa, Nyasaland, Portuguese South-East
Africa, and (until recently) Zululand.
2 This practice of corpse-eating is very old, and lies at the bottom of the Arab
stories of ghouls.
BEFORE THE WHITE MAN RULED 399
eastern and central Liberia, and perhaps in the recesses of
Portuguese Guinea.
It seems to be quite extinct in Portuguese West Africa,
except perhaps along the lower Kwango. In fact as a raging
vice cannibalism is almost limited in the Africa of 1907 to the
innermost Congo basin.
In 1883-5, when the foundations of the Independent Congo
State were being laid, Man, as an article of food, was the
dominating idea of the negro populations east of Stanley Pool 1
and west of Tanganyika. It was one of the stimulants of
the pre-Arab, pre-European slave trade. The more polished,
Hamiticized peoples of the north — Mafibettu, Nyamnyam,
Nsakara — were as much addicted to devouring human flesh as
the naked negroes of the central Congo.
Bentley writes in 1890 (partly with reference to the project
of establishing a big mission station up the Mubangi River) : —
" The whole wide country from the Mubangi to Stanley Falls for
six hundred miles on both sides of the main river, and up the Mubangi
as well, is given up to cannibalism. This is a bad habit, but it does not
necessarily mark out the natives as being of a lower type than others
who do not eat human flesh. . . . The natives of Manyanga and else-
where in the cataract region are far more degraded and no less cruel
and wicked than the wild cannibals of the Upper Congo, but they
would scorn the idea of eating human flesh as much as we should do."
Grenfell records over and over again between 1884 and
1890 that the natives of the upper river would beg him to
sell some of his Luango or Kru boys from off the steamer.
Coming from the shore of the great salt sea they must be very
"sweet," very appetizing. When he protested, they would say,
"You eat fowls and goats and we eat men; what is the
difference ? "
The son of Mata Bwiki, the celebrated Bangala chief of
Liboko, when asked if he had ever eaten human flesh, said,
" Ah ! I wish I could eat everybody on earth ! " 2
Perhaps cannibalism was carried to its climax of develop-
ment on the Mubangi River.
" There was a much greater demand for human flesh than the local
markets could supply. The people did not, as a rule, eat their own
1 Even the Bateke practised cannibalism to some extent. The non-cannibal
limit on the south was possibly the Lunda country and the peoples living on the edge
of the Zambezi and Luapula basins.
2 Bentley, who quotes this remark, says : " Yet there was something free and
lovable about many of these wild men . . . splendid possibilities. . . . Bapulula, the
brother of that fiend, worked for us for two years— a fine, bright, intelligent fellow.
We liked him very much." For portrait of Bapulula see p. 113.
4 oo GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
townsfolk and relatives ; but they kept and fattened slaves for the
butcher, just as we keep cattle and poultry. There used to be a con-
stant traffic in slaves for the purpose between the Lulongo River and
the Mubangi. The people on the Lulongo organized raids on the
upper reaches of their river, or landed at some branch to raid the inland
towns. They fought the unsuspecting and unprepared people, killed
many in the process, and brought the rest home with them. They
divided up their hu-
£. a .-, .-.~» ■■--. '^:«:'<g«^g.aij^E|ajyt. gM t |Ai a -. v ~ i man booty and kept
"■ '-/'• V**^)* J j t '*..' them in their towns,
^ ' H^K. t ' ec ' U P anc * starvm S>
■Pt H mk. until they were fortu-
nate enough to catch
or buy some more,
and so make up a
cargo worth taking to
the Mubangi. When
times were bad these
poor starving wretches
might often be seen
tied up in their towns,
just kept alive with a
minimum of food. A
party would be made
up, and two or three
canoes would be filled
V. V' 1 ""* -" ^ SlSiIIISB^?* ' with these human
» ** t^^HfflaffiS^I-' 1 ?^ cattle. They would
paddle down the Lu-
longo, cross the main
river when the wind
was not blowing, make
up the Mubangi, and
sell their freight in
some of the towns for
ivory. The purchasers
would then feed up
their starvelings until
they were fat enough
for the market, then
butcher them, and sell
the meat in small joints. What was left over, if there was much on the
market, would be dried on a rack over a fire, or spitted, and the end of
the spit stuck in the ground by a slow fire, until it could be kept for
weeks and sold at leisure.
" Sometimes a section of the town would club together to buy a
large piece of the body wholesale, to be retailed out again ; or a family
man would buy a whole leg to divide up between his wives, children,
and slaves. Dear little bright-eyed boys and girls grew up accustomed
to these scenes from day to day. They ate their own morsels from
time to time in the haphazard way they have, and carried the rest of
217. CAPTAIN COQUILHAT AND MATABW1KI, CHIEF OF
BANGALA (CIRCA 1890)
BEFORE THE WHITE MAN RULED 401
their portion in their hand, on a skewer or in. a leaf lest anyone should
steal and eat it. That is how cannibals are made." l
.^j^rjrSJ
"Arti; ■
■ ..'Ktf
When Grenfell returned from his first journey on the
Mubangi and reported the abundance amongst the natives of
copper rings and bracelets and of ivory, the traders who were
beginning to ascend the Congo sent agents on their steamers
to this river with ingots of copper with which to purchase the
ivory. But for a long time to come the natives refused to sell
ivory for any form of trade goods ; all they asked for was
slaves, "people .
to eat ! They
wanted meat,
not brass wire
or copper in-
gots, beads,
cloth, or even
satin. . . .
There was
ivory in abund-
ance, but it was
only to be ex-
changed for
human flesh."
Partly
through these
expeditions, the
long- estab-
lished trade in
slaves for food
between the
far-distant Lulongo River and the lower Mubangi was dis-
covered, and the Congo State from about 1887 posted
steamers at the mouth of the Mubangi and elsewhere and
soon brought this traffic to an end. One of the Bangala
chiefs visited by Bentley in 1887 had already killed and
eaten seven of his wives — not selfishly, because he had bidden
the relations to each feast in turn, so that there was no
family unpleasantness. On the Aruwimi, down to about 1892,
incessant raids were made by one village against another to
catch people for the cannibal feasts.
"In Ibuti's country, Bangala" (writes Grenfell in 1894),
"when a woman bears a child her husband buys a slave, kills
1 From a report to the Baptist Mission which is embodied in Pioneering on the Congo.
1. — 2 D
2l8. A BIG CANOE ON THE UPPER CONGO, OF THE TYPE
THAT USED TO CARRY SLAVES FROM THE LULONGO TO
THE MUBANGI
402 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
him, and has the meat dried to serve as food for his wife, who
during the early period of lactation may not go outside the
house."
In 1898 Grenfell writes: —
" At the market on the peninsula opposite Isangi (Lomami mouth)
a few days ago five women were killed and one Isangi man — some
quarrel between Topoke and Lokele. The women were eaten. A
good deal of unrest is said to exist, and several carriers between here
and Lopori have been killed and eaten quite recently. White men and
their escorts are not interfered with, but small parties are snapped up
without mercy. . . .
" Though not cannibals themselves, the Bopoto people do not
refuse to supply with meat their cannibal neighbours in the interior.
In February 1890 they killed a woman at Bopoto for some mis-
demeanour and cut her head off and kept it, but they exchanged the
body with the Ngombe people at the back for the price of a couple of
boys."
Although Grenfell denies that the Bapoto of the northern
Congo bank are man-eaters, Belgian explorers declare them
to be so, though not to the same frantic extent as the far-
spread Ngombe tribes and the Bangala. The Bapoto refrain
— gallantly — from eating women, declaring them to be "too
valuable."
On the lower Mubangi women are not admitted to cannibal
feasts as participants, but they are (or were, since much of
these horrors are now at an end) valued greatly as the material
of the banquet. The Buaka and Banziri of the north-western
Mubangi preferred the flesh of women and infants, " without,
however, despising that of prisoners of war and of male slaves."
South of the northern Congo, along the Ruki-Juapa River,
a favourite dish was a paste made of human blood and manioc
flour.
All the tribes (without exception) of the Mubangi-Wele
River and its affluents are or were cannibals as far as the
northernmost limits of the Congo basin. The Nsakara, how-
ever, when the white man came on the scene, were beginning
to limit their man-eating to the victims sacrificed on the graves
of chiefs, consuming these holocausts of slaughtered slaves in
elaborate feasts which lasted several days.
Among the Azande or Nyamnyam the flesh of the dead
and of those who have fallen in battle is much appreciated.
They are proud of gathering into necklaces the teeth of the
victims they have eaten. Schweinfurth, Junker, and so many
other travellers have written on the cannibalism of the Nyam-
BEFORE THE WHITE MAN RULED 403
nyam (whose very name is at once the evidence of their car-
nivorous lust and of the farthest extension northwards of the
ancient Bantu vocable "Nyama") that it is not necessary to
expatiate on the subject unduly. It will, however, be re-
membered that the Nyamnyam irregulars who served under
Gessi Pasha against the Nubian slave-traders of the Bahr-al-
Ghazal, emulated the twenty-years-later feats of the Batetela
Congo soldiers in devouring the bodies of the slain. The
Abanjia Nyamnyam of the northern Mubangi basin, when
their country first came under Congo State rule in 1892-8, still
carried cannibalism to an extreme — eating " victims of every
age, especially old men, who are, by reason of their weakness,
an easier prey. A human body was never rejected as unfit for
consumption unless death was due to a horrible skin disease."
According to Belgian records, ' human fat serves among the
Azande for numerous purposes, but the natives declare it in-
toxicates those who take too much of it.' I believe Schwein-
furth also records a similar statement.
Among the Manbettu and Mabode, " the bodies of enemies
slain on the battlefield are immediately divided among the con-
querors and cut up in long slices, which are boiled and carried
off by way of provisions. The prisoners are brought to the
village, penned up just like herds, and kept for future require-
ments."
The Ngombe tribes of Bwela, Buja, and other districts behind
Bopoto, besides those dwelling between the north bank of
the Congo and the Lopori, are also great man-eaters.
" They cut up and retail the bodies of their victims with the skill
of a perfect butcher. It often happens that the poor creature destined
for the knife is exposed for sale in the market. He walks to and fro
and epicures come to examine him. They describe the parts they
prefer, one the arm, one the leg, breast, or head. The portions which
are purchased are marked off with lines of coloured ochre. When the
entire body is sold, the wretch is slain and stoically submits to his
fate." (Torday.)
Perhaps, however, the first place in this Chapter of Horrors
must be given to the Basoko or Bazoko of the northern Congo
and the lower Aruwimi and to the Manyema (Bakusu) to the
east of the Lualaba- Congo. The Basoko eat the dead as well
as those who are specially killed for the feast. Only the chiefs
are allowed to rest in their graves ; all other persons — except
they die of infectious or disgusting diseases — are cooked and
eaten, not buried. " The Basoko prefer the flesh of the thighs
and breast. They cut this off in strips and eat small pieces
4 o 4 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
raw, threading the longer strips on skewers and drying and
smoking the jerked meat before a fire. They also pickle
human meat in jars with salt, or blend it and cover it with a
grease resembling lard and used for the same purpose." 1 The
Basoko eat women as well as men, but usually confine them-
selves to young girls or elderly matrons who have ceased
child-bearing.
The Manyema practise a still more repulsive form of
cannibalism. They readily eat the corpses of those who have
219. NGOMBE PEOPLE OF BWELA, BETWEEN THE NORTH CONGO AND THE
TRIBUTARIES OF THE MONGALA RIVER
Much given to cannibalism until recently.
died of disease, but only like bodies " high." They soak them
in running water till the flesh is macerated and almost putrid,
and then eat this disgusting carrion without further preparation,
not even cooking it. In this way they acquire a repulsive
odour so characteristic of their country (between the Lualaba-
Congo and N.W. Tanganyika) as to have given rise to the
cant term "bouquet de Manyema." 1
Cannibalism, as already stated, extends from the west
coast of Tanganyika (north of the Lukuga River) to the
Kwango in its lower or northern course. The practice, how-
1 Torday, from Belgian Reports.
BEFORE THE WHITE MAN RULED 405
ever, is extinct among the Marungu (Tabwa) peoples and the
Bemba and all the tribes south of the 7th degree of S.
Latitude. It no longer exists, for example, amongst the Lunda
or the Kioko. But the Basongo, Bakete, Batetela, and some
of the Baluba are man-eaters.
As regards the Baluba, though the practice is dying out
as a public custom, it still lingers as a masonic, fetishistic rite.
The following account, derived from the writings of Catholic
missionaries on the Kasai-Lulua, has been compiled by Mr.
E. Torday : —
" Here are some notes about the brotherhood of the ' Bakanzanzi '
or cannibals. Though the Baluba have the reputation of eating human
flesh, still they do not all do so, but only those who are initiated into
the Bakanzanzi sect.
" When a Muluba wishes to become a member of it, urged by a
desire to take part in the horrible feast, or in order to rid himself of
the nightly importunities of some returning spirit [who formerly be-
longed to the ghoulish brotherhood], he seeks one of the members, offers
him a small gift, and asks to be introduced into the brotherhood. The
person applied to should act as his sponsor, or as it is called here,
' father of the fetishes.'
" At the next meeting of the guild, the sponsor lays on the ground
the leaves of various trees, dried clots of blood, fragments of human
bones, and the body of a goliath beetle. He then introduces the
young aspirant, presents him with the handle of a hatchet, bids him
rest one end on the leaves and spin round, while seizing the other end
in both hands. Soon the aspirant becomes giddy and falls. The
initiated lift him, bind round his brow a crown of human bones, and
rub his body vigorously with oil and various magical ingredients till
his fainting fit has ended. Then they dress him again in his best cloth,
cover all his head with feathers and go outside. An old member of the
company at once proceeds to prepare a thick mess of tapioca (manioc
flour), a hen, and a little smoked human flesh, puts all these in an
inverted skull, places on either side the large bones of a human leg,
and lays the whole lot on the ground between the new member and his
sponsor, who find themselves squatting face to face on a rush mat.
The sponsor then takes a portion of the tapioca mess, soaked in the
stew of human flesh and fowl, and several times rubs with it the
tongue of the neophyte, as if to accustom him to it, then makes him
swallow, bit by bit, all the contents of the skull-bowl. Now the aspirant
is fortified against the power of returning spirits to injure him, in case
he should wish to violate the tombs of the dead and taste their flesh.
Henceforth he will be able to take part in the cannibal dances. The
sponsor receives immediately one or two fowls for his trouble, and
every one dances the reel of the Bakanzanzi.
" [There is yet another way of making the new member giddy. His
sponsor makes some slight scratches on his chest and back, into which
he rubs a magic concoction ; then he hurls at his chest an arrow filled
with the same ingredients, while his companions throw over his back a
4 o6 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
shower of red fruit. The victim immediately falls in a swoon. They
then proceed as described above.]
" After a longer or shorter period, the aspirant desires to become
initiated further into the more secret rites. His sponsor accordingly
summons all the members of the sect, goes into the dwelling of his pupil,
with all his talismans and fetishes, and binds round his brow a crown of
mukunkuli fruit. At nightfall, both wash themselves with a purifying
water in which various medicinal plants have been steeped, then go forth
into the forest to find a grave, quickly uncover the corpse, carry it away
at full speed to the river to wash it, and thence return to the village,
while repeating without a pause these words, " Mukoke, Mulete ! Pull !
drag ! " They place the corpse in a dwelling and lie down on either
side. When day breaks they put the body outside on a mat. The
sponsor then seats himself on a drum holding his neophyte to his side,
and bids the members build all round them a hedge of rush mats.
There, sheltered from prying looks, he discloses to his pupil the
secrets of the sect, the art of making magic remedies, talismans for
attack and defence, and confers on him fresh immunity from ghosts and
wicked spirits, by means of carefully mixed ingredients, enclosed in a
buffalo's horn.
" In the meantime an old member of the society has prepared the
mess of tapioca and human flesh described above, places it at the end
of his wooden spoon, and cautiously slips it inside the improvised house.
When the aspirant has learnt everything, the mats are removed and both
enter into another dwelling to proceed with a new rite. At the com-
mand of his sponsor the new member takes in a gourd filled with
kaolin (white clay), and a little dust, and whitens all his body while
without the drums beat furiously. In this way he fills himself with the
qualities of the spirit Mande, tutelary deity of this sect, who is sup-
posed to dwell in that gourd. One of the members seizes in his left
hand a small shield covered with genet skin [which has the quality
of rendering one invulnerable], and in his right a spear. The aspirant
in his turn seizes a human skull and a spear. Both dance a reel, come
before the sponsor, and pass between his legs ; after which the skull is
broken to small pieces and divided among all the performers. The new
initiate receives a part like the rest which he carefully carries away to
his house. This will be his principal talisman. He will no longer fear
returning spirits or evil spells, and will henceforth be able to take part
in the dances and feasts of the cannibals.
"In what do these feasts consist? They have been described as
follows : —
" When the Bakanzanzi have succeeded in getting possession of a
human corpse, they gather together at the confines of the village, or
by preference on the banks of the neighbouring river, and there, with-
out avoiding the gaze of the onlookers, they divest the body of its skin,
which they throw on the fire with the clots of blood. They next cut the
body down the middle to the loins and take off the head. The legs and
thighs are given to the old men, the torso upper part to the young
recruits, and the head and feet to the chief of the band. Each group
makes an equal division among its members, who string their portions
on sticks and put them to smoke over slow fires, preserving a part
BEFORE THE WHITE MAN RULED 407
for the feast of the day. This last is cooked in a large earthen pot.
A woman (for women are admitted to the sect) has taken care to
bring and to prepare some manioc flour.
" When all is ready, each comes in turn to take his portion quickly
and swallow it, running and imitating the
cry of the hyaena, before returning to his
place.
" The chief of the band is seated apart.
While, with the utmost unconcern, he is
boiling in a pot the victim's head, he divests
of their skin the two feet which have been
given him, cooks and eats them with de-
liberation.
"All this time the drums beat furiously,
and the brotherhood, now satiated, give
themselves up to a frenzied dance. After
this they burn part of the bones, and catch
the cinders in a small pot, on which they
set a larger pot upside down. A pin at-
tached to the inside of the under one is
fastened by a cord to a branch fixed in the
ground and bent in a bow ; in this way the
victim's soul is supposed to be imprisoned.
Meantime the chief has removed the flesh
from the head, has carefully rubbed oil into
it, burnt the brain, and slaughtered a white
hen to appease the dead man's soul. The
hollow of the skull is carried away to be
used for magic remedies. After this ghastly
performance the whole of the abominable
troupe proceed to carry on the dance at the
village.
" There are various ways in which the
Bakanzanzi obtain human flesh. Enemies
slain in battle, or useless prisoners, such as
old men and village chiefs, victims of the
trial by poison, are generally made over to
them, either gratis or for some service.
When there is a deficiency of these, they
proceed to violate graves, to rob them of
their dead. This is frequently done, and
particularly in the case of slaves and persons of small standing. When
a cannibal has succeeded in following the track of a funeral procession,
or if he has discovered by chance a new grave, he hastens to inform
some of the brotherhood. They all go by stealth to disinter the corpse,
fill up the ditch with earth, branches, and grass, and arrange everything
in such a way that no trace is visible. They at once hasten to wash
the body at the river, and assemble for the feast."
220
A MASK WORN BY MEMBERS
OF A BALUBA BROTHER-
HOOD IN CEREMONIAL
DANCES
(Torday collection.)
CHAPTER XVII
HISTORY OF THE CONGO STATE
I. ITS FOUNDATION
A S already mentioned earlier in this book, the King of the
/ \ Belgians practically started the movement which led
1_ Y. to the foundation of the Congo Independent State by
summoning a conference in September 1876 to sit at Brussels
under his own presidency, and with M. Emile Banning as
Secretary. This conference was to create an International
Association for the Exploration and Civilization of Central
Africa, with the special objects of abolishing the slave trade,
minimising rivalry or privilege as between different religious
bodies, and making a vast Free Trade area in which the
commerce of all nations should receive equal treatment. Be-
tween 1876 and 1883, King Leopold received the special
adhesion [and to a small degree monetary help] for the general
objects of his International Association from the Baroness
Burdett-Coutts, Sir William Mackinnon, Mr. Albert Grey
(afterwards Earl Grey), Cardinal Manning, and some other
English men and women.
But his International Association gradually segregated into
a number of National Committees. That of England sent
forth Keith Johnston, and one of the greatest of African
explorers, Joseph Thomson, under the auspices of the Royal
Geographical Society. Consciously or unconsciously, the efforts
of these British explorers were tinged with the desire to bring
East Africa under British political influence, and so far as
Joseph Thomson was concerned his journeys gave direct rise
to the creation of British East Africa and the northern part of
British Central Africa. 1
The French Committee soon employed De Brazza and
other travellers to create French Congo; the Italians worked
geographically and politically in Shoa and the region south of
Abyssinia ; the Portuguese between Angola and Mocambique ;
1 For both of which the present writer made the first treaties.
408
HISTORY OF THE CONGO STATE 409
and the Germans devoted their energies with remarkable
scientific results to the exploration of the regions between
Tanganyika and the Portuguese West African possessions.
As regards Belgium, her National Committee, as a branch
of the International Association, was founded in November
1876, and in October 1877 the Belgians despatched their first
expedition under the command of Captain Crespel to East
Africa, to what were then considered the dominions of the
Sultan of Zanzibar.
The Belgian explorers between 1877 and 1879 gradually-
advanced towards the Tanganyika, and on the 15th of August
in that year Captain Cambier founded the station of Karema
on the south-east coast of that lake, now a flourishing mission
of the White Fathers.
All these efforts of the Belgians in the direction of Tangan-
yika were — between 1877 and r 88 1- — mal vus on the part of
the British, whether or not these feelings were avowed officially.
It was always assumed in those days that the enormous per-
sonal influence of Sir John Kirk, as representative of Great
Britain for many years at Zanzibar, must of necessity result in
the erection of that Sultanate into a vast British East African
sphere of influence, wherein the Sultan and his Arab ministers
might continue to rule, but under the direction and advice of a
British Resident. That this position could ever be seriously
contested by any Power but France was not then thought
possible ; when the time was ripe, no doubt some arrangement
could be come to with France which would permit British in-
fluence over these regions to be more directly defined on paper.
Still, the obvious colonizing movements of the Belgians in
1879 and 1880 inspired apprehension.
But this feeling was soon to be allayed by the more direct
expression of Belgian ambitions. In November 1878 there
was founded at the Palace of Brussels the Committee for
examining the regions of the Upper Congo, under the
presidency of Colonel Strauch. 1 By February 1879 Stanley
definitely entered the service of this Committee at Brussels,
and in August of that year commenced the creation of the
Congo Independent State.
1 General Strauch (as he became) was a distinguished: Belgian officer of high
character. He was animated by the most genuinely philanthropic feelings towards
the Negro, and a desire to undertake the amelioration of Africa without thought
of gain either for himself or for his country. He was Administrator-General of the
Congo State from 1885 to 1888. The present writer had numerous conferences
with him at one time on the subject of the creation of a great independent African
state in the heart of the Congo basin which should become a Liberia on broader
lines.
410 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
The subsequent history of this movement under Stanley has
already been touched on quite sufficiently for the purposes of
this book. J From its inception in 1879 to the recognition of the
Congo Independent State in 1 884, it was almost entirely supported
by the contributions of the King of the Belgians, who was under-
stood to be devoting to this purpose, besides personal funds, the
large invested sum which should have been the fortune of his
deceased son had he lived to reach his majority. It is also
'fpjlff
i
Y
%s0^:m
221. THE ATLANTIC ASPECT OF THE BEACH AT BANANA POINT, CONGO MOUTH
Banana Point, the main seaport of the Belgian Congo, was not acquired by the State until 1885.
understood that when the enterprise assumed a more directly
Belgian aspect in 1887 King Leopold returned to the various
1 This note may be useful for reference in connection with the dates of Stanley's
operations : —
Comite d'Etudes du Haut Congo was founded in December 1878. Stanley
arrived at Banana on the 14th of August 1879, bringing with him the En Avant and
the Royal. The En Avant was forty-three feet by eight, and the Royal thirty feet
by six.
Vivi was founded September 1879, Isangila January 1881, Neve on January 26
1881. Manyanga was founded in May 1881. Stanley reached Stanley Pool July 27
1881. Leopoldville was founded December 1881. The En Avant reached Stanley
Pool in November 1881. On the 19th of April 1882 a steamer first starts for the
upper river. In May 1882 Lake Leopold was discovered, and Bolobo founded at
the close of that year by Captain Hanssens. In August 1882 Stanley returned to
England. On December 14 1882 he returned to the Congo, reaching Stanley Pool
in March 1883. On the 9th of May 1883 the A. LA., the En Avant, and the Royal
left Leopoldville for the upper river. On the 13th of June Equatorville was founded
under Vangele and Coquilhat. In August 1883 Bolobo was burnt to the ground. On
the 22nd of September Glave was left at Lukolela. On the 21st of October Liboko
was reached. On the 1st of December 1883 Stanley Falls station was founded, with
Binnie in charge. Stanley returned to England in June 1884.
^V ■:• • is I-'
222. VIVI IN 1882
(From a sketch by Sir Harry Johnston. Vivi Station was founded by Stanley in 1879 at the highest point of navigability of the Lower Congo.
It was abandoned in favour of Matadi, on the opposite bank, in 1886.)
HISTORY OF THE CONGO STATE 413
British contributors in the form of bonds with deferred interest
the sums which they had advanced towards what was originally
an international experiment. [The total outside contributions
were computed at .£16,888.]
That the intention of the King of the Belgians in those
days was purely philanthropic — and even to a great extent
international — may be realized by his appointment of the high-
minded Sir Frederic Goldsmid as his first Commissioner (July
1883), and by the subsequent designation of General Gordon
(January 1 1884) as his Agent-General on the Congo. Gordon
being called away from this task of creating a vast free negro
state in the Congo basin by the superior claims of the Egyptian
Sudan, Sir Francis De Winton, also a British officer of dis-
tinction, was nominated instead, and was the first Administrator-
General of the State from June 1884 to the end of 1885. 1
Up to this period, the constitution of the State in the
selection of officers of high commands had been so English in
complexion as to have given umbrage to France. It was not
an unreasonable step therefore that once his State had received
international recognition King Leopold should desire to be
represented on the Congo by a Belgian. Consequently
M. Camile Janssen succeeded Sir Francis De Winton in
the principal post at the end of 1885. M. Janssen for some
period of his government was represented at Stanley Pool and
elsewhere in the inner basin of the Congo by an Administrator
or Vice-Governor, Baron von Nimptsch. M. Janssen was
succeeded in 1891 by General Wahis (now Baron Wahis), who
is practically still, at the time of writing, the Governor-General
of this vast domain.
During the period of government of M. Janssen the Congo
Independent State was in rather a weak condition, and Belgian
rule was to a certain extent cut athwart by Stanley's Emin Pasha
Relief Expedition, the King-Sovereign having entrusted cer-
tain powers to Stanley (who remained to the day of his death
associated with the Congo State) to settle the Arab difficulty
in eastern Congoland.
In some respects it may be said that the really direct Belgian
government of the Congo scarcely commenced until the as-
sumption of power by Baron Wahis in April 1891.
But from the departure of Sir Francis De Winton in 1885
down to the present day there has been one element of great
weakness in the Belgian direction of affairs : the administrative
1 Sir Francis De Winton proclaimed the independence and constitution of the
Congo State at Banana, July 19 1885.
414 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
capital has been at Boma on the Lower Congo, close to the
sea, and not — where it should have been, at least from the date
of the opening of the railway — at Leopoldville, on Stanley Pool,
or even farther inland, at some commanding position on the
main Congo.
From the commencement of the Cataract region west of
Stanley Pool, onwards to the coast, the territories of the Congo
State constitute little more than a line of communication
with the ocean. The Belgian surroundings of Boma are re-
stricted ; all the questions of the Cataract region are relatively
223. THE POST OFFICE AT BOMA
trivial compared to the gigantic issues which begin at Stanley
Pool and end on the Semliki and on the west coast of Tangan-
yika. It is probable that we should have heard very little of
Congo atrocities if the Governor-General had resided with all
his staff around him on the Upper Congo. Seeing is believing.
Far away at Boma, with his face turned towards the ocean
[distant a few hours' steaming], and three hundred miles of dis-
agreeable, rocky country traversed by a steamer trip and two
days' railway journey intervening between the Court of Boma
and the beginning, at Stanley Pool, of those nine thousand
miles of river and lake navigation — these limitations have made
it scarcely more easy for the Belgian Governor-General of the
HISTORY OF THE CONGO STATE
4i5
Congo at Boma to gauge and grapple with the awful problems
that must be raised by European interference with the lives of
millions of negroes than if he lived at Brussels, and merely
acted on the written reports of his subordinates.
The first weakness of the Congo Government was the ques-
tion of money. King Leopold — and behind him the Belgian
nation— seemed to have bitten off more than they could chew.
They had undertaken a task of colossal magnitude in African
enterprise, the obligation to bring under effective control
nine hundred thousand square miles of territory in the very
heart of Africa, of which nine-tenths was situated at a distance
224. FIRST CONSIGNMENT OF IVORY FROM ABOVE STANLEY POOL
of over four hundred miles from the Atlantic coast, or at least
of three hundred miles from the navigable reaches of the
Lower Congo. The mere necessity of conveying past the
cataracts of the Congo from Matadi to Stanley Pool vast
quantities of stores, steamers in sections, machinery, arms and
ammunition, and food supplies by means of human porterage
(in the main) ran away with twenty thousand pounds yearly, at
least. Then the foundation of stations all over this interior
region, the salaries of the Europeans, the raising of a large
military force which must receive at any rate some pay, good
uniforms, sufficient rations, and be well armed — all this must
have meant during the first five years of the Congo State's
existence a heavy drain on the King's exchequer — possibly
416 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
some fifty or sixty thousand pounds a year. On the other side
of the balance sheet, there could be, at that time, only miser-
able sums derived from export duties, and such objects of
immediately realizable value as were to be found in the Congo
basin. The rage for rubber had not begun. The one asset of
value that the Congo State possessed was ivory. Ivory was
valuable enough to pay for the enormous cost of transporting it
from Stanley Pool to the navigable regions of the Lower Congo
and yet yield a profit. So the State practically constituted ivory
a royal monopoly in the inner basin of the Congo. If this was
not expressed in so many words, it represented the real facts of
the case for some time to come. 1
It must be admitted that the Congo State at this period
was greatly harassed by the ambitions of limitrophe Powers,
and was forced to go ahead in extending its posts far beyond
the limits of financial prudence in order to keep up with that
drastic condition which Bismarck invented (aimed at the
Portuguese) that an occupation or a protectorate must, in order
to be recognized by other Powers, be effective.
The French " empietaient sur les droits de Leopold" alon
the Mubangi River, and were aiming at the upper Wele.
Germany was commencing to look across Tanganyika with
the intention of reviving claims to special interest which were
commenced by the journeys of Bohm, Kaiser, and Reichard ;
and Britain, represented officially and unofficially, was endeavour-
ing to take advantage of the undefined southern frontier of the
Congo Government to carry her South African Protectorates as
far northwards as possible, in fact, to create a real " British
Central Africa" in regions which had hitherto known no Belgian,
but which had become acquainted with the British in such
travellers as Livingstone, Thomson, Arnot, and Alfred Sharpe.
<>'
1 Grenfell's journal makes several references to raids on the natives for their ivory.
Natives were forbidden verbally to sell ivory to anybody but the Congo State officials,
and if they infringed this order they were punished and their ivory was confiscated.
In May 1890 Grenfell complains that the representative of the State at Bumba
(on the northern Congo) had taken to firing on all canoes carrying ivory that were
bound westwards, while he also prevented canoes going eastwards from Bopoto to
purchase ivory. " State officers having a commission on the ivory they get, it makes
them keen about securing all they can."
Hodister was despatched up the Mongala River to buy ivory in May 1890. On
the 19th of June 1894 Grenfell writes from the Aruwimi River : " Some thirty tons of
Emin's ivory has already been bought from Chief (name illegible), who says it belonged
to Emin. More reported as still being in the country. What will be the result of
throwing all this ivory on the European market? As, however, the State is reported
to have sold all its ivory at nineteen francs per kilo for years to come, it is not regarded
as a serious matter except by those who doubt the existence of the reputed contract."
HISTORY OF THE CONGO STATE 417
So that the problem to be resolved by King Leopold was
the elementary problem of all that afflict human society — how
to find the money to carry out his schemes.
The basin of the Congo had been constituted by the
Berlin Conference a region in which no import duties could be
levied. A tax on exports alone would never supply a sufficient
Customs revenue to meet the cost of protection and adminis-
tration. To get Europe to unsay itself, however, it was as
necessary for King Leopold then as it has been for many a
British Minister before and since to approach the question from
the philanthropic side. The British, and no doubt other
nations, felt themselves seriously handicapped at the moment
by the inability to impose import duties in the territories which
they had acquired or were about to acquire within the conven-
tional basin of the Congo. So the representatives of the
Powers met at Brussels in 1889-90 with the pretext of raising
funds for the suppression of the slave trade, and agreed to
amend the Act of Berlin and sanction the imposition of import
duties to provide funds for the crusades against the slave-
trading Arabs.
The General Act of the Brussels Conference was signed on
the 2nd of July 1890, but owing to various delays the ratifica-
tion of this Act did not take place till the 18th of March 1891,
nor was it put in force till April 1902. The opposition which
delayed the application of the Act came from Holland. The
powerful Dutch trading house on the Lower Congo had
extended its operations to the Upper Congo from 1883 on-
wards, and had been a powerful rival of the Congo State in
buying ivory. The new powers entrusted to the Congo Inde-
pendent State might, feared the Dutch Government, react un-
favourably on Dutch trade. Probably they have not done so,
because it has no doubt been found advisable to come to some
composition with the Dutch Company.
Meantime Belgium had certainly sprung to the opportunities
offered by King Leopold's enterprise. A young Belgian officer
— Lieutenant Thys — had been an under-secretary at one of the
early conferences on the subject of the Congo, and with some
associates had founded in December 1886 a commercial and
industrial company to deal with the development of the Congo,
and more especially to commence the necessary surveys for
a railway to unite Stanley Pool with the Lower Congo.
Captain Thys also joined in an important commercial expedi-
tion to the Kasai which sailed from Antwerp in May 1887 to
acquire concessions for development in the interior of the
1. — 2 E
4 i8 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Congo basin. In one way and another Antwerp was awaking
to Congo possibilities. These influences reacting on the
Belgian Legislature, induced the House of Representatives in
1887 to authorize the emission of a Congo Loan of .£6,000,000. x
The railway from Matadi to Stanley Pool was commenced
on the 4th of November 1888. Its prosecution was assisted by
further direct help from Belgium, by the passing of a law
authorizing the Belgian Government to subscribe .£400,000
towards^ the foundation of the Congo Railway Company, an
association which came into existence with a capital of one
W"^ a
22IJ. RAILWAY STATION, MATADI, LOOKING DOWN THE RIVER
(On the promontory to the left are the buildings of the B.M.S. Base Station.)
million sterling on the 31st of July 1889, and actually com-
menced the construction of the line in March 1890.
The year 1888 was signalized by the military occupation of
Stanley Falls under Vangele and Van Kerckhoven. In 1889
Vangele, G. Le Marinel, and Hanolet established Belgian rule
on the upper Mubangi (Banzyville, the farthest post) ; and in
December of this year Lieutenant le Clement de Saint-Marcq
was stationed with the Arabs at Kasongo as Resident.
In 1890 there was much expansion. Hodister explored the
upper Mongala 2 and the region between the upper Lomami
and the Lualaba. Vangele extended Belgian rule up the
1 See page 451.
2 A great deal of work in this direction had previously been done by Captain
Baert and Mr. J. R. Werner.
HISTORY OF THE CONGO STATE 419
Mubangi-Wele to Jabir, thus getting in touch with the Sudan,
and up the Mbomu to Bangaso.
In 1891 King Leopold devoted special attention to the
south-easternmost regions of the Congo, more especially the
mountainous country of Katanga. Hither came, first of all, to
the court of Chief Msiri, Paul Le Marinel in April ; in August
Alexandre Delcommune was exploring the Lualaba and Lufira ;
and in December a powerful expedition under Captain Stairs, 1
Captain Bodson (a Belgian), Dr. Moloney, and the Marquis
de Bonchamps reached Bunkeia, the native capital of Msiri's
dominion in the heart of Katanga.
The eastern part of Katanga had been visited in 1890 by
Alfred Sharpe, 2 a Vice- Consul in British Central Africa. Mr.
Sharpe had offered to include Msiri's territory within the British
Sphere of Influence, but Msiri had civilly but firmly declined.
He was equally unwilling to accept the Congo flag when
Stairs pressed a treaty on him. It was determined, however, to
"brusquer l'affaire," especially as Msiri had become exceedingly
unpopular with the Basanga people, whom he enslaved,
mutilated, and ill-treated. Captain Bodson undertook to "bell
the cat," with the results that are so graphically described by
Mr. Torday in the following lines : —
THE STORY OF MSIDI
Msiri, or to be more accurate Msidi, 3 was born in Garenganze in the
district of Unyamwezi. He was the son of Kalasa, a great merchant
of the Wanyamwezi, who used to go distant journeys to trade in ivory
and slaves. The expeditions of Kalasa were often directed towards the
country of the Basanga. When Msidi was able to follow his father,
the latter took him with him and taught him the usages and customs of
African trading.
On the death of his father (about 1866) Msidi carried on his business
and like his father proceeded to pay frequent visits to the Basanga.
One day when he was travelling among the latter people he was
detained in the country by Sanga, chief of their tribe, who dwelt at
Mulumbu (on the right bank of the Dikuluwe). Sanga offered him
advantages of every kind in order to keep him among them, and
Msidi soon acquired a great influence over the Basanga, who had the
greater respect for him in that he possessed four flint-lock guns, a weapon
at that time unknown in the country.
He knew how to take advantage of his exceptional position and
soon got himself designated as Sanga's successor. With the object of
strengthening his position and making the success of his claims assured
when the time should be ripe, he sent for his brothers Dikuku and
1 A Nova Scotian, the lieutenant of Stanley and the first climber of Ruwenzori.
2 Now Sir Alfred Sharpe.
3 The name is often pronounced among the Basanga as Mshidi.
4 20 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Chikako, his kinsmen Kifuntwe, Kifundu, Nepamba, Inakulangalu,
Kasonga-Mona, and Lumungoi, as well as a great number of Wanyam-
wezi slaves, who were all devoted to his interest.
Finding his end approaching, Sanga transferred to the hands of
Msidi the sceptre and the sword of execution, the symbols of authority.
He advised him to follow his example, to be always a good ruler over
his people and treat them with humanity. Immediately after the death
of his protector Msidi installed himself at Mulumbu, where he sur-
rounded himself with all the adventurers whom he had introduced into
the country.
At the time when he was appointed chief of Mulumbu the country
was inhabited on the west by the Balunda and the Baluba [who dwelt
on the left bank of the Lualaba] ; on the south by the Balamba [who
occupied the country which lay along the right bank of the Lualaba
from the source of this river as far as the Luapula], and the Balala of
the Zambezi watershed. On the south-east between the Luapula and
the Bangweulu, lived the Bahusi.
On the east dwelt the Balomotwa, a race of mountaineers who occu-
pied the chain of the Kwandelungu (Kunde-irungo) Mountains ; the
Bakundu or Bachila inhabited the banks of Lake Mweru ; the Bikanda
peopled the left bank of the upper Luapula ; finally the Balunda were
installed on the right bank of the same part of this river. The great
chief of this last tribe, Kazembe, was at this period the one who enjoyed
the greatest power throughout the country. He proclaimed his laws in
the land. Without being recognized as suzerain he was listened to by
the Basanga, the Balunda, and the Bakundu, but only received gifts
from them without ever exacting tribute.
All the small chiefs of each of these families used to send by way of
tribute the whole of their ivory to the chief of the tribe.
After being firmly established at Mulumbu, Msidi thought of re-
placing by his relatives the Basanga chiefs who occupied with all their
subjects the country of the rich copper mines. To attain his object he
went step by step. Various expeditions were organized, and Msidi,
always victorious, placed at the head of all the villages (and as
guardians of all the mines of the country of the Basanga) people who
were devoted to his interest. Kazembe wanted to interfere, but Msidi
organizing a new expedition turned eastwards. He first routed the
Balomotwa, crushed the Bakundu (or Bachila), and then crossing the
Luapula penetrated to the capital of Kazembe whom he seized. He
put him to death, and established in his place his victim's son, who bore
the same name as his father and recognized Msidi as overlord. 1
This expedition finally established his power over the Balunda of
the east and the Bachila. The Balomotwa alone, a wild and untame-
able race, refused to submit. They took refuge in the caves of the
mountains to which none could approach, defended as they were by
huge rocks, which the cave dwellers hurled upon all who tried to get
near them.
1 This was the Kazembe who came under British protection in 1892. The
" Kazembe " (a word supposed to mean Viceroy) was originally in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries a satrap and a scion of the Lunda Empire of the Mwata
Yanvo. (H. H. J.)
HISTORY OF THE CONGO STATE 421
All these expeditions had not caused Msidi to neglect, good
merchant as he was, commercial affairs. While he was occupied in
subduing the Basanga, he had sent his own brother Chikako to Bihe
(Angola) with ivory, and had bidden him attract to the country the
merchants of Benguela.
Chikako was completely successful in his mission, and soon powder,
trade goods, guns and beads poured into the country. From that time,
thanks to firearms, elephant hunting was rendered easier, and the
great Arab merchants of Lake Nyasa hastened to trade in a country
where ivory was found in such abundance.
After the submission of the natives who dwelt on the banks of the
Luapula, Msidi became master of a territory which had for boundaries
on the west the Lualaba ; on the north almost the ninth degree of
latitude ; in the east the Luapula ; and on the south the Zambezi-
Congo water-parting. This vast country covered an extent of nearly
63,000 square miles. The commercial transactions of such a powerful
negro potentate had made his power known far and wide. Livingstone
and Cameron revealed it to Europe. In 1878 Joseph Thomson tried
to make his way to Bunkeia, which Msidi had made his residence, but
found himself forced to retrace his steps when he reached the confluence
of the Luapula and the Lualaba. The German explorer Reichard was
the first European to reach Msidi's capital in 1883.
At this date Msidi had organized a vast expedition which was
intended to subdue the tribes of the north and the Baluba, beginning
with those on the banks of Lake Kikondia. This campaign, which
lasted several months, enabled the great chief to set up his relatives
Kifuntwe, Kifundu, Nepamba, Inakulangalu, Kasonga-Mona, and
Lumungoi as rulers of different districts, lying between the mouth of
the Lufira and the lower Luapula. Kikondia and other Baluba chiefs
of the south, dwelling by the Lualaba, recognized him as overlord.
The Balunda, fearing to see their country invaded, submitted, and the
Bahusi and Balamba chiefs ended by repairing to Bunkeia to recognize
the tyrant's authority.
In 1885, Capello and Ivens crossed the south of Msidi's possessions.
About the same time F. S. Arnot reached Bunkeia, where he was so
well received that he decided to establish a mission there.
The power of Msidi had reached its zenith in 1890. His ambition
no longer knew any bounds ; all the world was bowing down before
him. The Scottish missionaries themselves who were established at
Bunkeia were treated with disdainful toleration ; one of them (Craw-
ford) acted as his secretary, others sent him valuable presents in the
name of the inhabitants of Glasgow : they were at his mercy. 1
Msidi had by this time grown too old to conduct any longer
his expeditions in person against certain of his rebellious subjects.
So he had relinquished the command of them to his son Mukanda-
bantu.
No longer being able to enjoy the sight of the slaughter of the
vanquished, in which his soldiers indulged on the very spot where they
made them prisoners, and eager for blood, he set about making martyrs
1 This is Mr. Torday's version ; not mine. One or more of these missionaries may-
have been Scots, but the mission was supported by the Plymouth Brethren. (H. H. J.)
422 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
of those who surrounded him. Every day he increased the number of
his victims and invented new cruelties.
Sometimes it was shutting up women alive in houses with dogs and
leaving them without food. At the end of some days the latter, mad
with hunger, would eat the women who had no longer strength to
protect themselves. Sometimes it was binding wretched creatures to
trees, and when they cried too much from hunger, cutting off their ears
or noses to provide them with a meal !
Daily for the most trifling reasons, victims were laid on their backs,
then their breasts were opened by driving in a wedge in order to tear
out the heart. Still other victims were buried alive up to the neck at
some distance from the villages, and then became the prey of wild beasts.
The Bahusi and Balamba were the first to revolt from Msidi, then
followed the Baluba, and finally, most fatal of all, even the people who
dwelt immediately around the chief began to desert, fearing they would
become victims of the cruelties which they witnessed daily. Tribute
did not arrive in such abundance ; and then no longer having anything
to barter with the traders of Bihe, who continued to come to him, the
cruel despot robbed of their goods those merchants to whom he no
longer had ivory to give. In revenge they instigated the Basanga to
cease paying tribute to Msidi, and to sell direct to them in return
for their powder and guns the proceeds of their hunting. These
natives followed the advice of the Bihenos ; they soon found them-
selves in possession of a great many guns and revolted.
Three chiefs, Mutwila, established near the Lufira, and Kalakumbia
and Mulumu-manyama, near the Dikuluwe, put themselves at the head of
the movement and penetrated three times into Bunkeia during the night.
Villages were burnt and many men killed. Msidi, who no longer pos-
sessed much powder, made but a poor defence of his own. Moreover,
desertions increased in considerable proportions. Famine came further to
accelerate the confusion, which became general ; it was brought about
by the improvidence of the inhabitants and the ravages of the Basanga
at each of their attacks.
Msidi, finding himself abandoned, was himself thinking of leaving
Bunkeia when there arrived the expedition of Captain Stairs.
The savage negro ruler at first received the commander of the Katanga
expedition with joy ; he imagined that the energetic officer was going
to help him to subdue his revolted subjects. But he strangely deceived
himself, and when he discovered his mistake he began to plot against
the life of the Europeans. The 20th December 1891 Captain Bodson,
sent by his commanding officer to Msidi in order to induce him to keep
to his promise, boldly entered with no more than ten men the very
house of this monster.
He argued for ten minutes with the chief, when suddenly the latter
raised himself, brandishing a sabre of which Stairs had made him a
present the day before ; it was a signal, arranged beforehand, and
immediately the followers of Msidi covered the Belgian and his com-
panions with their guns. Seeing his danger, Bodson drew his revolver
and blew out the brains of his antagonist. One of the attendants of
the negro king thereupon fired at the Belgian captain, who fell mortally
wounded.
HISTORY OF THE CONGO STATE 423
Such was the end of " the greatest tyrant of Africa," as Stairs
called him. The same evening Bodson died. " His death was one of
superb heroism," says the missionary Arnot, "and at the moment when
he was about to draw his last breath, he uttered the cry, Vive le Roi !
Those were his last words ; some moments afterwards he had ceased
to be."
Msidi's kingdom has long since been dissolved ; it was parcelled
out by Stairs and those who followed him — Captains Bia and Francqui,
P. Le Marinel, and A. Delcommune — and divided among different chiefs
who submitted to the authority of the Congo State.
After the annexation of Katanga, the Congo Independent
State soon extended its visible authority to the south-eastern
extremities of the Congo basin, 1 all danger of British aggression
being obviated by effective occupation. In 1890 arrangements
were made (to be carried out in 1892-3 by Grenfell) for
defining the south-western frontiers marching with Portugal.
Political possession of the west coast of Tanganyika was taken
by Captain Jacques in December 1891, when he founded the
fortified port of Albertville. The Congo State was now free
to solve the Arab question.
1 At first the Congo authorities attempted to extend their boundaries across the
upper Luapula ; all these disputes were solved by the Anglo-Congolese Treaty of
1894.
A s
CHAPTER XVIII
HISTORY OF THE CONGO STATE
II. THE ARAB WAR
S related in chapter x., the situation of the Congo Free
State in regard to Arab rivalry had reached its nadir
about 1889. At that time the Arabs were triumphant
on Lake Nyasa. On Tanganyika they had swept away both
the beginning of German influence and what remained of
Captain Storms' actions. 1 They had profited enormously by
the period during which Tipu-Tipu had been the Congo State
Governor of the Stanley Falls region, having turned his
subsidies into the purchase of arms and ammunition. They
had also received much plunder from the revolt against the
Germans in East Africa. They had built magnificent towns,
and laid out hundreds of miles of plantations along the
Lomami and the Lualaba- Congo. At last, in 1892, they
definitely cast off any show of respect for either the Congo
Free State or Europeans in general. The unoffending Emin
Pasha had been lured to his death at Kinena 2 and killed by the
1 Captain Storms was a Belgian who came out to East Africa in 1879 on behalf
of the Belgian section of the International Association. He made his way to Lake
Tanganyika, where he was also joined by the pioneers of the White Fathers (the
Catholic mission of Algeria). Storms set himself to work to defend the Tanganyika
natives against the Arab slave-raids under Tipu-Tipu and others, raids which at that
time had reached their maximum : the Arabs in fact were devastating the shores of
Lake Tanganyika to recruit slaves for their armies and labour force. Storms became
quite a hero after beating off the Arab forces with merely native material hastily
drilled as soldiers. The London Missionary Society's agents by this time were
established with a steamer on Tanganyika and worked cordially with Storms, who at
last became recognized as the big white chief of the southern half of this lake. So
much so, that when it was intimated to him about 1885 that the Congo Free State
had come into existence, and the eastern half of Tanganyika had been recognized as
German, he revolted against the orders transmitted by the King of the Belgians and
declared himself (or was said to have done so) " Emperor of Tanganyika." This
may have been a newspaper exaggeration of his resolve to maintain himself on this
lake independently of any European Power and as a sworn foe of the Arabs. After a
time, failure of supplies and want of means compelled him to bow to the inevitable,
and he eventually returned to Belgium. This episode deserves mention, because it
did much to arrest the Arab movement in South-Central Africa. The writer of these
lines reached Tanganyika in 1889, to find the memory of Captain Storms still vivid
amongst the peoples of the lake, who had the highest regard for him. (H. H. J.)
2 October 23 1892. Kinena is near the Lilu River, about eighty miles east of
Ponthierville.
424
HISTORY OF THE CONGO STATE
425
orders of Mohara, who was practically the supreme chief of the
Congo Arabs. The Belgian expedition under Hodister, which
had been establishing itself for trading purposes on the upper
Lomami, had been attacked and its leaders massacred, includ-
ing Hodister himself. 1 Finally, the Belgian Resident at
Kasongo and his assistant (Lieutenants Lippens and Debruyne)
had been made prisoners.
Tipu-Tipu, who was the real leader of this movement from
1875 onwards, and whose history it is not necessary to relate
here, 2 had observed at all times a certain loyalty towards
Stanley and perhaps towards the English in general, but he had
226. SEFU, SON OF TIPU-TIPU, AND HIS REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGOLAND, WITH
THE TWO BELGIAN OFFICERS WHO WERE SUBSEQUENTLY KILLED
Photo taken by Rev. William Forfeitt at Stanley Falls in 1891.
the greatest contempt for the Belgians. The Belgian explorers
of East Africa prior to the foundation of the Congo Free State
had not, with the exception of Storms and Becker, always
been very wise, resourceful, or even courageous. They
appeared to the Arabs feckless people in comparison with such
Englishmen as Speke, Burton, Grant, Stanley, Thomson, and
they were obviously not so clever as the German scientific
travellers of those days. It therefore seemed to the Arabs in
1892 as though they had better make peace with the British
on Lake Nyasa, the Germans on eastern Tanganyika, and
devote all their energies to creating a great Muhammadan state
1 May 15 1892.
2 See Tippoo- Tib, by Dr. Brode : Edwin Arnold, 1906.
426 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
in South-Central Africa which should send its commerce to
the east coast, over British and German trade routes.
The efforts of the home organization in Brussels to meet
this serious crisis do not appear to have evidenced either great
foresight, lavish expenditure, or preparation for a struggle
of colossal difficulties and importance. The situation was
saved by a handful of Belgians of quite exceptional bravery,
vigour, and grim determination, by one or two Englishmen in
the Belgian service, and by several Liberians ! The story of
the wonderful year's war against the Arabs in 1892-3, as related
by Captain Sydney Hinde, 1 and illustrated by occasional re-
marks in the diary of Grenfell, is certainly one of the most
extraordinary chapters in African history.
The preparations for this struggle, conscious or unconscious,
had been made by gradually establishing a strong depot at
Lusambo, by exploring with the En Avant, and the occasional
friendly co-operation of Grenfell in the Peace, that wonderful
system of waterways — the Kasai and its tributaries — which
really enabled the Belgian authorities working from Stanley
Pool to take the Arabs in flank. If it had not been possible
to get by a direct steamer voyage from Stanley Pool to within
a few days' walk of the Lomami River, the whole course of
recent Congo history might have been different. The heroes
on the Belgian side in this extraordinary conflict were firstly
Commandant Dhanis, who for his services was created a baron
by King Leopold, Captain de Wouters, 2 Commandant Ponthier,
and Captain Doorm, Captain Sydney L. Hinde (a medical
officer to the expedition, originally recommended for this
service by Dr. Parke, who accompanied Stanley), and a
Liberian negro sergeant from Monrovia named Albert Frees.
Perhaps next in importance, however, to Dhanis was a negro
soldier of fortune who had risen to the position of a powerful
chief — Gongo Lutete. This man came from that remarkable
Manyema people, a race which has played such a great part,
for good and evil, in the development of the eastern Congo.
Captain Hinde describes him in the following words : —
" He was a well-built, intelligent-looking man of about five
feet nine inches in height, with a brown skin, large brown eyes
with very long lashes, a small mouth with thin lips, and a
straight, comparatively narrow nose. ... He had a way of
1 The Fall of the Congo Arabs, by Captain S. L. Hinde : Methuen, 1897.
2 The Chevalier d'Oplinter de Wouters was six feet five inches in height, always
dressed in white, peerless in bravery, and known to the admiring negroes as " The
White Heron."
HISTORY OF THE CONGO STATE 427
never letting anyone forget he was a chief, and his manners
were extremely dignified."
In July 1892 the leading details of the rather ramshackle
expedition which was to stay the Arab advance left Lusambo
to march towards the Lomami. Gongo Lutete in the previous
year had commenced the Arab attack on the Congo Free State
by fighting its officers on his own account, the Arabs disclaim-
ing responsibility. He had been, however, severely beaten in
this engagement, and had conceived a sudden respect and liking
for the European as compared to the Arab ; moreover, the
Arabs had treated him after his reverses with disdain. Ac-
cordingly, after an interview with Commandant Dhanis he
decided to join the Belgian expedition with a nucleus of six
hundred irregulars. The real triumphs of this extraordinary
campaign, according to Hinde, rest in the main with Dhanis,
de Wouters, Doorm, Ponthier, Gongo Lutete, and the
Liberian, Albert Frees, for the details of whose extraordinary
exploits, courage, good luck, the reader should consult Captain
Hinde's book.
The regular soldiers employed in this expedition were
Hausas from the interior of Lagos, recruited by the permission
of the British Government. There were irregulars from the
Gold Coast, from Liberia, and from Sierra Leone. The
officers, with the exception of Captain Hinde, were Belgians.
A volunteer, however, attached himself to the expedition and
rendered good service in the person of Mr. Mohun, the Con-
sular official of the United States.
The expedition was exceedingly poorly furnished with arms,
ammunition, and supplies, and had it not been for the remark-
able captures from the Arabs it would have perished in spite of
its bravery. But one incredible success led to another, till at the
end of a year's campaigning all the Arab leaders were dead or
sorely wounded, and the Arab power of Tanganyika and the
Upper Congo had vanished, perhaps for ever. 1
There are still Arabs on the Congo, and the Arabized
population is proportionately larger than ever. The Swahili
language of Zanzibar has been implanted as the lingua franca
of all the eastern third of the Congo State. But it is an
industrious population, that for the time being, at any rate,
sides with the white man, and accepts the white man's discipline.
1 It might be interesting to record a list here of the principal Belgians who
distinguished themselves in the 1892-4 campaigns against the Arabs between
Tanganyika and the Lomami : Dhanis, de Wouters, Descamps, Doorm, Lothaire,
Ponthier, Gillian, de Heusch, Cerckel, Collignon, Rom, Scherlink, Tobback, Van Lint,
Hambursin, Lange, Michaux, Collet, and Cassar.
428 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
But the whole episode of the contest between Belgian and
Arab for the possession of the most valuable part of Central
Africa was a lurid one, marked by horrors scarcely recorded of
the worst days of the Spaniard in Central America, or the
227. FACSIMILE OF A PORTION OF THE SKETCH MAP BY BARON DHANIS,
PRESENTED BY HIM TO GRENFELL IN 1890
Englishman or Dutchman in Southern Asia. The nucleus
of the Congo State army under Commandant Dhanis was
respectable enough : the Hausas, the Sierra Leone men, the
Liberians, probably kept within the canons of decent warfare.
But the vast horde of irregulars — Batetela, Manyema, Baluba,
under the orders of Gongo Lutete, were frantic cannibals, just
as was the case with the seven or eight thousand irregular
HISTORY OF THE CONGO STATE 429
troops attached to the Arab forces who came from somewhat
similar tribes. The loss of life in each contest was terrific.
Men were shot, speared, knifed, drowned, and invariably eaten.
Prisoners seem to have been issued as rations by the native
commanders of both the armies ; indeed, Grenfell (writing from
hearsay of this warfare from the west) and Hinde, from closer
knowledge, allude to instances of men and women being handed
over to these wild soldiers for their food allowance that were
cut to pieces as they stood, and devoured as soon as their flesh
could be cooked. Nothing but a few bones were left of the
killed on the morning after every fight. The crocodiles swarmed
in all the big rivers to devour fugitives who took to the water
as their last chance. As to the Arabs, when in the earlier
stages of this struggle they caught a Belgian living, they would
flog- him to death and leave his mangled remains to be cooked
and eaten by the auxiliaries. The only two Belgians who
were destroyed with anything like decency by the Arabs were
Lieutenants Lippens and Debruyne, the Resident and his
secretary at Kasongo, who in a sense were held as hostages
till the Arab defeats succeeded one after the other. They were
then put to death with knives, and even cut into pieces, but
were carefully buried, and had a neat ornament erected over
their common grave.
On the other hand, such Arabs as fell into the power of
Dhanis's native irregulars were killed and eaten, though it
is only right to point out that the Belgians succeeded in saving
a number of their Arab prisoners, and that the cases of court-
martial of Arabs accused of complicity in the death of Europeans
were conducted with impartiality.
The stories of the capture of Nyangwe and Kasongo read
like episodes in an impossible Rider Haggard romance. These
brilliant victories were followed by sordid misfortunes — out-
breaks of smallpox and influenza. The splendidly built towns
of the Arabs were destroyed, so that in the .case of Nyangwe,
scarcely a vestige has remained.
These crowning victories, moreover, were followed by an
incident more shocking to our sense of honour by far than the
subsequent execution of the Englishman Stokes. 1 Gongo
Lutete, the Manyema hero, who had turned the fortune of war
1 Charles Stokes was a fine, handsome-looking man, a native of the north of
Ireland, who came out about 1880 to East Africa in order to organize the caravans of
the Church Missionary Society passing between the Zanzibar coast and the Victoria
Nyanza. He obtained a great influence over the natives, and was often asked to
organize trustworthy caravans for other travellers. He arranged, for example, at the
outset the Kilimanjaro Expedition led by the present writer. Some years later he
43Q GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
in the beginning of the struggle, and had won victory after
victory over the Arabs, he, in fact, who alone had made this
extraordinary conquest possible to Dhanis, in some way came
into the power of Lieutenant Duchesne, a Belgian officer on
the Lomami River. Gongo Lutete trusted himself confidingly
to this man's control. A charge of conspiracy was suddenly
trumped up against him, a court-martial was summoned, and
Gongo Lutete sentenced to be shot. Though staggered at
this act of inconceivable ingratitude and baseness, he resigned
himself to death, and attempted to hang himself with a rope
made from his clothing. He was cut down, revived, haled out
of prison, and shot with every circumstance of ignominy. The
action, as recorded by Hinde, remains to this day inconceivable.
For a time the native forces were too much stunned to carry
out any plan of revenge, but the murder of Lutete fermented
in their minds.
Soon after this another incident occurred which, for the first
time, caused bad blood between Belgium and Great Britain
regarding the Congo. In 1895 Captain Lothaire, who had
taken a very gallant part in the Arab war, was clearing up the
remains of that war in the upper Lindi country (south of the
Aruwimi-Ituri) when he was made aware that a Mr. Stokes was
in the neighbourhood, having travelled thither from the Victoria
Nyanza. He was informed that Stokes was buying ivory from
the Manyema and Arabs in the region bordering on Lake
Albert Edward, and that he was supplying them in exchange
with gunpowder and ammunition. Lothaire summoned Stokes
to a conference, and Stokes, apparently never dreaming of the
result, came to Lothaire's camp at Lindi 1 with a few followers
only. He was immediately arrested, tried, sentenced, and a
few hours afterwards hung. The act was outrageous, yet it
does not seem to my mind such a blot on the Belgian record
as the murder of Gongo Lutete, their great negro ally. Stokes,
I fear, was keeping the Arab struggle alive by supplying them
with munitions of war ; but under the circumstances a sen-
tence of imprisonment at Boma and deportation to Europe,
when the charge was proved, would have met the case amply.
There was something bred of savagery in his judicial murder.
Although retribution for the execution of Gongo Lutete
took two years to mature, it fell heavily on the Belgians. By
ceased his direct connection with the Mission and took up a general transport and
trading business on his own account. He had very great influence in Uganda, and
his intervention in the affairs of that State is recorded in my book on the Uganda
Protectorate.
1 On the upper Lindi River.
HISTORY OF THE CONGO STATE 431
this time they had paid off most of their Hausas and other
foreign negro troops, and relied chiefly on the indigenous
Bangala of the Northern Congo, and the Batetela and Manyema
from the east and south. Amongst the Batetela, who were
chiefly stationed on the Lulua River, the remembrance of the
death of Gongo Lutete smouldered, till at last (Luluabourg, July
1895) ^ey broke out into open mutiny, killed their command-
ing officer (Capt. Peltzer), and marched north and east. Baron
Dhanis composed the mutiny by military action and negotia-
tion. But it broke out again at the beginning of 1897, as
Dhanis was leading a large force of men to occupy the Lado
enclave. At Ndirfi, in the Nile basin, the Batetela turned on
their officers, killing Capt. Leroi and several others, and making
off southwards with large stores of arms and ammunition.
Dhanis and a few other Belgian and Norwegian officers
managed with great difficulty to regain Stanley Falls, where
they organized a new army to pursue the mutineers.
The revolted Batetela soldiers ranged chiefly through the
Manyema country east of the Lualaba-Congo.
The following note on the Batetela mutineers and on the
officers of the Congo forces is contributed by Mr. Emil
Torday : —
" The Batetela are a fine race of warriors, who form the best soldiers
to be found in the Congo. But much tact is necessary to lead them,
for they have in them the spirit of rebellion which is not found among
the other tribes. With a firm but kind officer the Batelela will do
anything, but weakness or exaggerated severity drives them to rebel-
lion. The officers of the Congo State are for the main part Belgians,
Italians, and Scandinavians. Of these the palm in later days is certainly
due to the Scandinavians. [I write this without detriment to the heroic
Belgians who served with Dhanis in the Arab war or carried the Congo
flag to the Bahr-al-Ghazal.] These men possess as a rule a very good
education, and that which is of great importance for the white man
when he has to command primitive peoples, they are very correct in
their dealings. They are exceptionally bold, and their Northern blood
gives them that coolness which cannot be found amongst the others.
Some of these Scandinavian officers have won the heart of their
people by one simple act of daring by which they show distinctly that
however brave the negro be he cannot approach the white man.
Shortly before the mutineers took Kabambare the State troops were
surprised by them one evening. They retired about two hundred yards
behind their camp fires whilst the mutineers camped at about two
hundred yards from the other side. The avant-garde was commanded
by a Swedish officer who is now aide-de-camp of the King of Sweden.
Whilst waiting for events to develop he took a cigarette from his
pocket and was looking for a match that he could not find. So he
walked slowly up to the camp fire whilst the enemy began furious firing
432 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
against him. That did not make him hasten. He took up a burning
brand, lit his cigarette, and returned slowly to his soldiers without even
once turning round on the enemy, from whom hundreds of bullets
were coming. It may be easily imagined how the soldiers were
impressed by this. Some short time after this, Kabambare was
attacked by the rebels, the State forces were repulsed and obliged to
abandon the place. Amongst those who defended the town was the
Swedish officer. He was badly wounded. The whole forces of the
State retired, but his own fifty soldiers refused to follow them, saying
they would stick to their officer to the last man. Four hours after the
troops had been routed those fifty men, commanded by their black
sergeant, kept the fort, and when, at last, overwhelmed, they were
228. CONGO STATE STATION OF BASOKO, NEAR CONFLUENCE OF ARUWIMI
(Where Grenfell is buried.)
obliged to retire, two of the strongest men carried the wounded officer,
the troops surrounding them and fighting their way through. Only
fifteen out of the fifty arrived at the main camp, but they had brought
their officer with them."
On November 15 1898 Grenfell writes: "Kabambare
taken by revolted Batetela. Four Belgian officers killed, two
guns taken, and all the stores lost." A month or so later the
place was retaken by Baron Dhanis. On the 15th of January
1899 Lieutenant Bell 1 was killed at Mondimbe, near Basoko,
and Van der Schinck of Boyulu was killed on an expedition to
1 Grenfell refers to Captain Maurice Bell, a British Militia officer who had
entered the service of the Congo State.
HISTORY OF THE CONGO STATE 433
the south. On the 1 7th of February Captain Descamps was
attacked by Arabs and mutineers at Bafwa-boli (near the
Lindi River), but he succeeded in driving them off, losing one
or two men and several women and children prisoners. About
this period Grenfell writes that the Belgians are endeavouring
to prevent the Arabs committing cruelties on the people (in the
districts where the Arabs have submitted), but that the number
of headless corpses met with in the lands behind the river banks
shows that the Arabs are still maltreating the natives.
On the 2nd of March 1899 he writes : —
" M. of Bafamba tells me that since the Goodwill went upstream
a prisoner was brought in to L e, who after wanting to kill the said
prisoner was persuaded to let him go. As he was going away he took
his rifle and shot him through the back ! He afterwards gave the body
to the Ngombe, who ate it ! This story I got bit by bit, and with every
appearance of its being true. The soldiers may be ruled by Bula
Matadi, but they rule the people. M. tells me that the Commandant
has been informed of this affair, and also of another similar one.
" He tells me that the Commandant shot the sergeant who was with
Bell because he had deserted his chief. The sergeant, however, showed
three wounds in front in evidence of his having done all he could. He
was an Abango-bango man. Bell's head was brought to market to
prove that the warrior had really killed a white man. His body was
eaten. His revolver was found on a native a few days later and resulted
in the said native being shot. Only two. out of thirty guns taken have
been returned, but women and children are held as ransom for the
others, and it is expected they will soon come in. Bell killed eight
natives with his revolver before he succumbed. He received a spear-
thrust through the thigh which prevented his keeping up a standing
fight. It was not till he was speared through the body from behind
that he gave up the struggle. ... I hear before leaving the Falls that
Van der Schinck was surprised in camp and mortally wounded. He
was carried back to Boyulu by some faithfuls, but expired before
the following morning. Soon after he was buried the station was
attacked and pillaged and his body was taken out of the grave and
mutilated. . . ."
Driven out of Manyema by Dhanis and Descamps, the rem-
nant of the mutineers marched northwards towards Uganda,
under the vague idea of joining hands with the Uganda
mutineers in a general rising of black men against the white
tyrants. 1 But for the dogged bravery and persistence of
Dhanis they would have effected their purpose, but they were
pertinaciously followed ; until at last, worn out with hunger,
1 In case we should moralize too much over the revolted Manyema soldiers and
the misery they inflicted on eastern Congoland, we might remember that we,
simultaneously, were combating a mutiny of our Sudanese troops in Uganda and a
formidable native insurrection.
I. — 2 F
434 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
disease, and fatigue, their miserable remnants passed over into
German East Africa, or even found their way as suppliants to
the Uganda Protectorate, where a few of them were given
the means of settling down by the present writer.
It is movements like these that have justified a warning
from time to time that the good or ill condition of the Congo
basin is a matter of nearly as much concern to the limitrophe
Powers as it is to the King- Sovereign himself. It is
equally the case with regard to the welfare of Portuguese East
or West Africa, British Central Africa, Uganda, Nigeria.
Racial movements in Africa spread far more rapidly than we
are inclined to assume. Even the best-governed territory of this
continent contains the germs of dissatisfaction, just as would an
England or a Belgium admirably administered by Japanese or
by American negroes. It is true that as a rule the negro has
very little sympathy with the negro, and readily enlists under
the white man's banner to subdue or slay other negroes. Yet,
every now and then, once in fifty years perhaps, a not-easily-
defined wave of feeling pulsates through this or that African
region, some electricity which for a moment fuses all internecine
dislikes and jealousies, and for a brief while ranges all the
black men in spirit against the handful of white men who are
tyrannizing over them.
229. RED-BRONZE COLOURED POT OF THE
ABANGO-BANGO PEOPLE
(Basoko country, Aruwimi confluence.)
CHAPTER XIX
HISTORY OF THE CONGO STATE
III. ADVANCE TO THE NILE AND LATER DEVELOPMENTS
A
FTER the extraordinary successes of the Belgian arms
over the Tanganyika Arabs in 1 893 there was a great
extension of Belgian or Congo State ambition and
geographical discovery, especially towards the regions in the
north and north-east.
Already, in 1887 and 1889, Lieutenant Vangele, a clever
young Belgian who was one of Stanley's earliest recruits, had
continued Grenfell's exploration of the Mubangi River. Ascend-
ing this stream at flood, he had managed to pass the Zongo
rapids, and had traced it eastwards as far as its junction with
the Mbomu. By 1891 Roget had co-operated with Vangele in
founding a post at Jabir on Schweinfurth's Wele. 1 In the
north-east, beyond the Aruwimi River, enterprise had been
checked by the fierceness of the Manyema slave-traders, allies
and confederates of the Tanganyika Arabs. The murder of
Emin Pasha had daunted exploration in this direction.
But in 1892 Van Kerckhoven had traced the Mubangi-Dua-
Makua-Wele to its very source within two or three days' journey
of Wadelai, on the White Nile. 2 In 1892 Georges Le Marinel
and Hanolet, and in 1893, Nilis and de la Kethulle had taken
even bolder flights. They had pushed northwards from the
1 Jabir, as already related, was a Nyamnyam (A-banjia) trader and petty chief
who after the collapse of civilized government in the Sudan had settled down with his
guns and superior knowledge on the Wele River as an independent potentate. Jabir's
dim acquaintance with the outer world beyond the heart of Africa and his remem-
brances of white men like Lupton Bey led him to receive the Belgians very kindly in
the days when they were but feebly supported in traversing these wild regions.
Nevertheless, though his co-operation assured the safety of their pioneering expedi-
tions, they quarrelled with him in 1904-5, and in 1905 he was captured by the Belgian
force ; and executed.
Lupton Bey, it must be remembered, before his capture by the Mahdists in 1885,
had been a wonderful explorer. He was a remarkably intelligent young Englishman
engaged for the service of the Egyptian Government in the Bahr-al-Ghazal. Highly
popular with the natives, he travelled far and wide to the west and south of the
Egyptian dominions, and his fame going before him made it easy for other Europeans
to follow in his footsteps. He died [the Mahdi's prisoner] in 1892.
2 Van Kerckhoven was killed by a gun accident on August 10 1892.
435.
436 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Mbomu affluent of the Mubangi till they had explored the
basin of the Shinko and had reached the north-westernmost
limits of the Bahr-al-Ghazal region and even the vicinity of
Darfur and the Bahr-al-Arab watercourse. Schagestrom, Milz,
Daenen, Becker, Chaltin, Lothaire, Paul Le Marinel, and
Bricusse explored the mysterious lands on the confines of the
Bantu, between the Wele on the north and the Congo and
Aruwimi on the south. Ponthier had elucidated the geography
of the Bomokandi, the first great feeder of the Wele River, 1 and
Hecq had traced the Mbomu to its source Milz in September
1892 had even reached the Nile near Bedden, and in June 1893
Captain Delanghe had occupied Muggi, Lahore, and Dufile
on the left bank of the mountain Nile. So successful and
relatively bloodless were these expeditions that the Sovereign
of the Congo Independent State no doubt in his heart of hearts
was a little inclined to laugh at the timidity of the English.
For, between 1885 and 1898, the British Government and
its representatives in Egypt felt a very real dread of adventure
in the Sudan, and no doubt attributed to the forces of the
Khalifa a far greater degree of power than they possessed over
the tribes in the region of the Bahr-al-Ghazal and along- the
White Nile above Fashoda. King Leopold knew of course that
the British shrank not only from the serious monetary cost
of reconquering the Sudan, but from provoking a war with
France by displaying their ambition to revive the lost Egyptian
empire over these regions. Just as he had stepped in amongst
the jealous Powers in 1884 with regard to the possession of the
western Congo, so it seemed to him that the situation presented
by Central African affairs in 1894 was the opportunity for
extending his dominion north-eastwards from the Congo to the
Nile ; perhaps even northwards to Lake Chad. For by April
1893 an expedition under Hanolet, Van Calster, and Stroobant
had explored the Bali and Koto affluents of the Mubangi and
penetrated across the water-parting to Belle within the basin
of the Shari.
So far the Belgian forces had attempted no tussle of
strength with any strong Dervish post in the Nile valley. 2 But
in 1 894 the forces of the Khalifa reoccupied much of the mountain
1 He fought a successful battle with Manyema Arabs on the Bomokandi and
checked their movement westwards towards the Mubangi, 27 October 1891.
2 This bubble was to be pricked by the daring of Marchand and his com-
panions—the French expedition which in 1895-7 traversed Africa from the Gaboon
to Lado, beat the Dervishes in several encounters, and planted the French flag at
Fashoda, one of the most remarkable feats of daring and endurance to be found in
the history of Africa.
HISTORY OF THE CONGO STATE 437
Nile and of the Bahr-al-Ghazal. They had furious encounters
with the Congo forces under Delanghe, Gerard, and Donckier,
and later on under Francqui, the Katanga explorer. The
Dervishes attempted to invade the Congo basin, but were
decisively routed and made to retire to the main Nile. This
intervention of the Belgians saved Uganda from a Mahdist
invasion. Already, in 1886, when the relief of Emin Pasha
was being discussed, King Leopold had cast his glances at
Emin's little State of Equatoria, and in 1890 he was supposed
to have obtained from Sir William Mackinnon, then Chairman
of the Imperial British East Africa Company, a promise or
understanding that the Company's forces would leave open to
the King of the Belgians the eventual occupation of what is
now known as the Lado Enclave.
In 1894 therefore the well-known but unfortunate boundary
treaty was concluded between Great Britain and the Congo
State. It admitted Belgium to a leasehold over the Bahr-
al-Ghazal and the Lado Enclave, whilst Great Britain ob-
tained in exchange a recognition of her rights over the rest
of the Egyptian Sudan, a small piece of additional territory at
the south-west corner of Tanganyika, improvements in her
frontier round about Lake Bangweulu, and a narrow strip
of land to connect the north end of Tanganyika with Uganda.
This treaty brought to a crisis the counterclaims of France
and Germany. Germany compelled Great Britain to abandon
the only asset of real value in it — the strip of land between
Ankole and Tanganyika, which would have made the Cape to
Cairo route complete. France insisted on stopping the
Belgians at the Mbomu River, and practically thereby ear-
marked for herself the whole region of the Bahr-al-Ghazal up
to and beyond Fashoda.
It was, however, before Lord Kitchener's defeat of the Arabs
and the withdrawal of the Marchand Expedition that the Congo
Independent State definitely occupied the Lado Enclave. The
advance southwards of the Dervishes to Bor and the mutiny in
1897-8 of Dhanis's troops at Ndirfi on the edge of the Nile
basin checked at first the Belgian advance Nilewards, but
Captain Chaltin on the 14th February 1897 inflicted two
crushing defeats on the Dervish forces and hoisted the Congo
flag at Rejaf, opposite Baker's old station of Gondokoro.
In 1895 and in 1901 the question of a Belgian annexation
of the Congo was actively discussed in Belgium. But although
(in 1892) the Belgian Constitution was revised to make it
possible for that country to possess colonies, and King Leopold
438 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
signed treaties of annexation in 1895 and made his will in
favour of Belgium in 1889 and 1901, nothing practical came of
these pourparlers.
The judicial murder of Stokes in 1895, and the articles of
Glave on his journey across Africa and through the Congo
State [published in 1896-7 in the Century Magazine], combined
to produce a disagreeable impression in England and America
that all was not well in the style of Congo administration and
commercial development. In 1899 and 1900 the Batetela
mutineers, thought to have been completely quelled by Baron
dflHHHHHR^w^»^'^'^« * : " '■'■■■■
■HmflHHlHHNii
-m
230. REV. LAWSON FORFEITT'S HOUSE AT NEW UNDERHILL, NEAR MATADI,
LOWER CONGO
Glave after crossing Africa reached Matadi very ill and exhausted, and died at Mr. Forfeitt's house at
Old Underhill, a little lower down the river.
Dhanis and others, became exceedingly troublesome in the
south-east, necessitating arduous campaigns. The misdeeds of
the agents of the Soci^te Anversoise in the north had raised
terrible revolts amongst the Buja and the Ababua.
In 1 90 1 a great sensation was made by the arrest of
Rabinek, an Austrian trader who had approached the south-
eastern part of the Congo Free State from British Central
Africa, obeying all the regulations, and furnishing himself with
the necessary documents. Nevertheless Rabinek was arrested
by Major Weyns on the African Lakes Company's steamer
Scotia, a British steamer, and within British waters on Lake
Mweru. At Mtoa, Rabinek was sentenced by Major Weyns
for supposed illegal trading to twelve months' imprisonment and
HISTORY OF THE CONGO STATE
439
a fine of 1,000 francs. Desirous of appealing at Boma against
this sentence, Rabinek was despatched thither on a journey of
more than 1,500 miles with scant provision for his comfort.
The result was that he died of fever before reaching his
journey's end. It was further alleged that Rabinek's property
to the value of ,£15,000 was confiscated by the State authorities.
The successors of the Livingstone Inland Mission — the
Congo- Balolo missionaries — who had chosen as their domain the
Balolo country south of the Upper Congo, where the Crown
Lands of King Leopold were situated ; also the American
Presbyterian Mission, which had established stations on the
231. AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSION CHURCH AT STANLEY POOL
Kasai and the Lulua, and the American Baptist missionary
Sjoblom had from 1899 to 1902 been transmitting terrible stories
of the behaviour of the agents of Concessionnaire companies and
of such State forces as were placed at their disposal. Sir Charles
Dilke took up the cause of the Congo natives in the Parliament
and Press of Great Britain. The Aborigines Protection
Society of Great Britain had already in 1896 moved the
British Government to champion the cause of the native races
in Africa, more especially in the Congo basin. The researches
of the Aborigines Protection Society were summarized and pub-
lished in 1903 in a remarkable book by Mr. H. R. Fox-Bourne. 1
1 Civilisation in Congoland, a Story of International Wrong-doing, by H. R.
Fox-Bourne : London, 1903.
44Q GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
The Congo peoples were to have another champion, how-
ever, who by appealing possibly to a wider audience has
achieved remarkable results. Mr. E. D. Morel, 1 for ten years
employed in the shipping office of Messrs. Elder Dempster,
was, on account of his intimate knowledge of French, despatched
by that firm to Antwerp and Brussels to take charge of the
business of their Congo line of steamers, a line subsidized by
the Congo Independent State. Mr. Morel, becoming intimately
acquainted with the policy which was being adopted by
King Leopold and the Congo State towards the natives, a
policy which he defined as "a vast system of criminal oppres-
sion," became so incensed at this wrong-doing, that, in 1901, he
renounced his employment with the Liverpool shipping firm
and constituted himself the champion of the Congo peoples.
He founded the Congo Reform Association in 1904 and be-
came its unpaid secretary and organizer.
As the result of the agitation which grew up in England
and Scotland after the essays and speeches of Dilke, Fox-
Bourne, and Morel, the British Government directed their
Consul on the Congo, Mr. Roger Casement, to visit the regions
to which the principal atrocities were attributed. Mr. Case-
ment's report created a great sensation, as did also the state-
ments of the Rev. J. H. Weeks of the Baptist Mission. These
were amongst the causes that determined King Leopold to
appoint a commission of his own, consisting of one Swiss, one
Belgian, and one Italian, to visit the Congo basin and report to
His Majesty on the condition of affairs. Long prior to this, in
1896, the King had appointed a kind of committee from
amongst the missionary societies (Catholic and Protestant) to
protect the rights of .thematives, and George, Grenfell was its
secretary ; but, as he himself remarks in his letters, this com-
mittee was a nullity. 2 The members of it were separated in
some cases a thousand miles from each other, and several
hundred miles from the Domaine de la Couronne or the terri-
1 Mr. Morel, according to an article in the World newspaper (December 4 1906),
is directly descended on the maternal side from the celebrated Count van Hoorn of
the Netherlands revolt against Spain (executed on the market-place of Brussels by
Alva, 1568). After this tragedy the van Hoorn (de Home) family emigrated to
England [Norwich], where they became Quakers. Mr. Morel's father was of French
extraction, of the family of Morel-de-Ville.
2 " If the Authorities are really in earnest about rectifying abuses they can do it
without a Commission of Missionaries, and if they are not in earnest it will require a
Commission with a very different constitution to produce any practical result. Not
one of the Commissioners resides in the districts where the cruelties are reported !
I think I am nearest and I am two hundred miles away ! If in serving on this Com-
mission I can serve the Congo, I shall be very, very glad, but I confess I am not very
sanguine." (Grenfell to A. H. Baynes, November 26 1896.)
HISTORY OF THE CONGO STATE 441
tories of the concessionnaire companies where the wrong-doing
was taking place. No provision, I believe, was made for the
travelling expenses of this committee, nor were any facilities
given to its members for obtaining evidence.
But the King's Commission, though it "was long in producing
its report, gave to the world no reassuring account as to the
native policy of King Leopold's Government, in fact did very
little to dissipate the effect produced by the previous accusations
of consuls and missionaries.
Then in February to March 1906 occurred the Five Days'
Debate in the Belgian House of Representatives, resulting in
terrible denunciations of the Leopoldian system and a moral
victory for the party of reform. In June 1906 King Leopold
issued several remarkable declarations regarding his attitude and
intentions towards the Congo, 1 defending the policy of spending
the Congo surpluses and revenues on Belgium. The complete
disparity between the King's views and his interpretation of
his rights and the opinions of the Belgian party of reform and
of the signatory Powers of the Act of Berlin brought the
Congo Question to a crisis. Belgian annexation on a just basis
consistent with the provisions of the Berlin Act and the recog-
nition of native rights is the solution favoured by all reasonable
men and women while these words are being printed.
Meantime the present condition of affairs in the Congo Free
State may be summed up as follows : Considerable progress in
railway construction, but much native discontent in the north-
centre and east. As regards the southern or south-western
portion of the Congo territories the situation is unsatisfactory.
In the vicinity of Luluabourg, on the Lulua River, is the resi-
dence of the powerful chief of the Zappo-Zaps. This individual
was a head-man or brigand chief of the Basonge people, a war-
like race dwelling between the Sankuru and the Lomami and
probably related to the Bakuba and Batetela. The Zappo-Zap
chief enrolled himself first of all as an ally of the Arabs. He
thus gathered round him a considerable following of Manyema,
Batetela, and other warlike raiders. After the Arabs were
crushed he took the side of the Congo Free State, and was
allowed to establish himself with a strong following of Basonge
warriors as a ruling chief between the Lulua and the Sankuru.
There can be little doubt that of late years this man has carried
on a slave trade as unblushing and as disastrous as the Arabs
did in their worst days. The slaves in question are despatched
1 Africa No. I (1907). Correspondence respecting the Independent State of the
Congo, pp. 4 to 12.
442 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
through the Lunda country towards Angola, and it is certain
that most of them find their way to the Portuguese cocoa-
planting islands.
It is not necessary at this juncture to launch out into an
attack on the plantation system of Sao Thome or Principe :
the Portuguese authorities on the Angola coast no longer find
themselves able to defend it. Large numbers of hapless negroes
from the Luba, Lunda, and Bailundo territories have been
enrolled as labourers for a seven years' term of service. There
is no doubt that they are well and kindly treated once they
reach Sao Thome\ But when their time is up they are homeless
people, as it is impossible for them to return to their homes in
the heart of Africa. Indeed, they have no desire to do so,
knowing that they would run the risk of being re-enslaved or
eaten by their compatriots. So they drift back into virtual
slavery at Sao Thome. But that Zappo-Zap and Portuguese
half-castes should be allowed to carry on these devastating
razzias is indeed a blemish on the fame of the Congo State and
of the kingdom of Portugal. At one time this matter was taken
up by the American Presbyterian missionaries on the Lulua
River. They appealed to a Vice-Governor of the State or to
some passing official of lesser rank, and obtained from him the
enunciation of the principle by which any person declared a
slave by Zappo-Zap or any other chief could at once claim his
freedom on payment of sixteen pieces of cloth. No sooner
did this edict become known than enormous crowds of people
flocked to the State posts or to the mission stations, each with
his or her sixteen pieces of cloth, claiming the letter of
freedom.
Some few certificates of freedom were issued, and proved
potent in their effects, owing to the almost religious reverence
with which the negro regards a written document. But
Zappo-Zap complained. A more authoritative representative
of the State came on tour and examined into this question,
and annulled the edict (teste the Rev. M. Martin). 1 He said,
" There is no slavery in the Congo Free State, consequently
these people have no need of certificates of freedom. At the
same time, we cannot interfere between a chief and his people."
The result has been to increase the power of Zappo-Zap, and
to cause at the time these words are being written a condition
1 Of the American Presbyterian Mission, Kasai-Lulua rivers. It was the
Rev. W. M. Morrison of this mission who first drew attention to the atrocious mis-
deeds of Zappo-Zap's people, when he addressed in 1899 a direct personal appeal to
King Leopold.
10 - Sketch Map to show Recent
Troubles (Slave trade wars,
atrocities, etc.) in connection
with the Natives of Central
Africa, since 1885.
Statute Miles
W# Indicates European wars agaJnst Negroes or Arabs with orwithout just cause
$$$$$$$> Areas when* wars, bloodshed t tumult, etc- hays arisen through unfa-ir taxation or arbitrary commercial policy
&2iS V Slave trade stimulated by demand for labour in Portuguese Gulf of Guinea. l s ? s •&£.£* Ara&sla,vetra.de.
and Suda-nese slave raJds.
444 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
of miserable unhappiness amongst the people confided to the
charge of this unmitigated scoundrel.
Further to the west in this central part of the Kasai basin
there is another chief as powerful as Zappo-Zap, but no ally —
on the contrary, a bitter enemy — of the Congo Free State.
This is Kalambo, of whom more may be heard in the future.
He is now recognized by the people as the king of the Bena
Lulua. 1 Since the crumbling of the Lunda empire, which in
a sense has gone to sleep under the easy rule of Portugal, the
only really independent and prominent native potentate in
south-central Congoland is Kalambo. His territory is long
rather than broad, stretching as it does westwards from the
vicinity of the upper Sankuru River across the central Kasai
into the eastern part of Portuguese West Africa — the land
of the Tukongo, Tupindi, Bena Lulua, and Bakioko. Kalambo
is not actually hostile towards the Portuguese, who leave him
very much to himself, but he displays a deadly hostility towards
" Bula Matadi." In earlier days he was on friendly terms with
the first pioneers of the Congo Free State. Through them
or from the Arabs he received— or later on, captured — large
quantities of arms of precision and cartridges. But he and
his people were treated in a fashion which can only be
called outrageous by the agents of a certain concessionnaire
company, or by one or two officers of the State. He
turned therefore against the Belgian power, and inflicted on
its forces several severe defeats. After this he announced
that he wished no longer to fight with the white man, if the
white man would leave him alone ; his territory would be
limited by such-and-such rivers, and if no white man entered
it he would not allow his people to go beyond these limits to
attack the Europeans or their subjects. As regards the
missionaries, he fully appreciated their disinterested work, and
he would have liked much that his people should " learn to
read books and hear about God." But he knew that if he
admitted missionaries, somehow or other traders would follow,
and after traders would come State officials. Therefore he
had determined to refuse access to his lands to any Europeans.
Disregarding this warning, agents of the Kasai and other
companies penetrated his country. They were promptly
killed.
1 Rua, Lua, and Lulua are only variant forms of the tribal name of Luba.
CHAPTER XX
THE MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, AND ACHIEVEMENTS
OF THE CONGO STATE
IN December 1885, when the missionaries of all denomina-
tions had scarcely ceased acclaiming heartily the creation of
the "Congo Free State" 1 as an alternative to the extension
of Portuguese influence (the Baptists being amongst the warmest
friends of King Leopold's enterprise), Grenfell wrote a note at
Stanley Pool complaining that the State was already beginning
to infringe the provisions of the Act of Berlin by claiming all
the land as State property and refusing sites to a missionary
society as well as to the Dutch Trading House.
In 1890 he writes in his diary : " Bula Matadi has be-
come disliked amongst the people of the Upper Congo, and is
called Ipanga Ngunda, which means " Destroys the country."
In May 1890 Grenfell first complains of the action of the
Congo State officials in regard to ivory, which had been
made a Government monopoly, in practice, if not in theory.
The representative of the State at Bumba on the northern
Congo was said to fire on all canoes carrying ivory westwards,
whilst he also prevented canoes going eastwards from Bopoto
to purchase ivory. " The State officers having a commission on
the ivory they get, they are keen about securing all they can."
On June 17 1890 Grenfell's diary records the first hint
being given as to the possibility of Concessionnaire companies
coming into existence on the Congo. He had received the
information from an American, Colonel Williams, who went up
the Congo as far as the Stanley Falls, and told Grenfell on his
return that an American agent at Brussels (Mr. Sanford) had
been discussing with the King in 1888 the idea of creating
such companies to deal with the development of the State.
When Stanley's expedition was conducting and concluding
operations for establishing its " International" stations between
1 It is not clear how the official title of " L'Etat Independant du Congo" came
to be rendered " Congo Free State," this translation not being strictly correct.
Stanley — the wish being father to the thought — seems to have originated the common
English name, " Congo Free State." The native name is " Bula Matadi," the nick-
name originally given to Stanley.
445
446 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Boma and Stanley Fails (between 1882 and 1884), considerable
pains were taken to secure the sovereign rights of, first, the
Comite d'Etudes du Haut Congo and, later, the Association
Internationale Africaine over both banks of the Lower Congo
between Vivi and Stanley Pool ; also along the Niadi-Kwilu
River and the north bank of the Congo between Banana and
Vivi. Payments were made in goods, usually adequate to the
area of unoccupied land thus acquired. It is possible that
further treaties or purchases of land were made on the south
•^ f ^'i^dissi ' ^^Ste- ^*S5^- ..^SEHiP
K^ife^
i%'S^iiH''- : iiC'' _-n__.»ii.. ji '€. -"- i'« l iii<lWiiiMi'" | 8"
^^S^V4MhI@mHI
fcyri
232. RUBBER AND IVORY AT THE STATE DEPOT, MOBEKA, UPPER CONGO
shore of Stanley Pool and along the east bank of the "Chenal,"
the narrow part of the Congo between Chumbiri and Stanley
Pool, but if so, they were never published.
Soon after these arrangements were made (which at most
secured for the Congo State strips of land along the Congo
course from Banana Point to Stanley Pool on the mouth of the
Kwa) the Act of Berlin was signed, and the Congo Indepen-
dent State sprang into existence as an African Sovereign
Power recognized by all the leading Nations of the world. King
Leopold thereupon took it for granted that because Europe
had given him authority over nearly a million square miles of
land in South- Central Africa that was sufficient in the way of
title deeds : any reference to the twenty millions of people and
their 100,000 chiefs, kings, or sultans was unnecessary. By a
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 447
decree he attributed to himself as King-Sovereign the owner-
ship of all the vacant lands not actually in the possession of
natives dwelling on them.
This method in the hands of a high-minded, conscientious
potentate might at the start have been the best and simplest
way of solving the land question of the Congo. King Leopold
might then have proceeded to arrange in course of time a
definite land settlement for the natives over whom he was the
self-constituted suzerain or sovereign. By the issue of these
decrees he was in a position to prevent any reckless or fraudu-
lent buying up of native territories by uncontrolled adventurers.
As Sovereign of the State by the provisions of the Act of
Berlin he was naturally obliged to afford every assistance to
missionary societies, without distinction of creed, that they
might obtain the necessary land for their propagandist and
educational establishments.
Nevertheless, as we see in Grenfell's letters or notes from
1885 to the time of his death, the King-Sovereign restricted
the enterprise of the Baptist Missionary Society (and that of
other missions) in the most unjustifiable manner. The Baptists,
for example, have never been permitted to this day to acquire
one square yard of land on which to build a station between the
mouth of the Aruwimi and the British frontier of Uganda, and
they are under the same disadvantage regarding an extension of
their work up the Lualaba- Congo. Along the thousand miles of
river frontier between Stanley Falls and the Katanga region
they may not obtain an acre of settlement. Similar difficulties
had been placed in the way of certain Roman Catholic missions
down to a recent date, but these have since been adjusted by an
agreement with the Roman Church. Other Protestant missions
besides that of the Baptists have sometimes only been able to
acquire a site for building and settling down by leaving the
territory under the control of the Congo State and going into
lands still governed by powerful native chiefs who have, for a
time, at any rate, set the State at defiance, but have allowed
missionaries to build within their limits.
The fact is, not to waste too many words on this sad
subject, the foundation of the Congo Free State has evinced a
lack of statesmanship, and an incredible ignorance of African
conditions on the part of theorists, amiable and unamiable, who
have legislated for this million square miles of Central Africa
from Brussels. Several of the Congo Secretaries of State or
home administrators have never seen Africa, unless it has
been in a winter visit to Algiers. Even the Governors-General
448 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
or heads of departments representing the King-Sovereign in
Africa have restricted their sojourn a great deal too much to
Boma, and are and have been far more ignorant about the real
conditions of the people of the vast inner basin of the great
river than is many a well-informed English geographer or
librarian who has never seen the Congo.
Side by side with this heart-breaking incompetence has
been (as the pages of this book should show) some of the most
splendid pioneering work ever accomplished in Africa by any
European nation. As I have ventured to write at an earlier
date : " In carrying out such a stupendous work as the dis-
covery, mapping, conquest, pacification of, and developing the
means of communication over such a vast territory as the
nearly one million square miles of the Congo State, no monarch
or leader of men was better or more loyally served than King
Leopold has been by the greater number of the Belgians,
Scandinavians, or Italians employed in the construction and
development of the Congo Free State."
The men who performed this work for their King-Sovereign
for the most part received pitifully small wages in return for
devoting the best years of their lives to a singularly hard
existence in a most unhealthy part of tropical Africa.
They were ungenerously or unwisely treated as regards their
emoluments. A system was brought into force by which these
agents of the State received in the first place a living wage — an
annual salary of, let us say, >£8o to ^"200 (on an average), and
in addition a commission 1 on the ivory or on other produce that
they could purchase for the State. This system, which was at
the bottom of so much of the early Congo troubles, urged reck-
less, conscienceless men to abuse the power of their guns and
soldiers in raiding the country, in imposing all sorts of taxes, fines,
and contributions on native villages or native chiefs, in declaring
to be the exclusive property of the State all ivory and, later, all
the produce of the forests outside the circle of native habitations.
Of course many of the Belgians, being good-hearted men
of fine principles, remained poor and contented themselves
1 " There can be no doubt that commissions on results of produce collected are
practically continued, for it is admitted that Commandants and members of the Staff
nave a pecuniary interest in coffee and cocoa planted and rubber and ivory brought in.
It seems as though poor Von Mueller of Yalemba, incited by the prospects of a con-
siderable addition to his traitement by energy of administration during the last few
months, was tempted to exercise such pressure as resulted in his being speared to
death on the 6th of September 1899, two days after the Peace had passed up. People
had been threatening him for some time ; and giving them their opportunity by going
with only six soldiers, he lost his life and two of his soldiers as well. He has been
replaced by an Italian." (Grenfell's Diary, November 1899.)
fiiiliiiil" "'•''' "'*'
233. THE CONGO STATE STATION AT NOUVELLE ANVERS, BANGALA
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 451
with glory. They were looked up to as patriarchs by the
native communities, to whom they had been a veritable blessing
in that they had put down (at Bolobo, for example, in 1896) 1
the horrible conditions of native life to which I have already
referred and had brought peace and prosperity. But men of
this kind were not favoured for promotion, except they had
achieved some extraordinary geographical exploit or brilliant
victory in warfare. They did not add to the revenues of the
State.
From 1879 to the year 1890 (approximately) King Leopold
supported the cost of creating and maintaining the Congo Free
State by an annual subvention (it is said) rising by degrees
from ,£20,000 to ,£40,000. 2 Until the Brussels Act came into
1 After the State definitely occupied Bolobo in August 1896, Grenfell noticed
a great and rapid improvement in the condition of the people, the suppression ot
burial murders and killing for witchcraft, and less violent punishments for theft.
2 The total amount spent by the King on the Congo, 1879 to 1890, is computed
from what is known at between ,£400,000 and ,£500,000. [Outside subscriptions to the
Comite d'Etudes du Haut Congo, mainly from England, were reckoned at about
£16,888, and in 1887 the subscribers were paid off in Congo State bonds to that
amount (422,220 francs) to bear l\ per cent interest after 1899.] I' 1 1 888 a Congo
loan to the extent of 150,000,000 francs (£6,000,000) was authorized by decree, but
apparently only 94,000,000 francs (£3,760,000) was issued between 1888 and 1898.
Belgian critics of the Congo State have alleged that only £r,ooo,ooo of this issue (the
deficit occurring principally in 1888) reached the Congo.
In 1890 Belgium advanced ,£1,000,000 to the Congo State, and in 189;, £272,176,
this total loan of £1,272, 176 not to be repaid if Belgium eventually annexed the State,
and only to bear 3 per cent interest if Belgium did not annex. Between 1896 and
1898, £560,000 was borrowed from or guaranteed by Belgium.
In 1901 a loan of .£2,000,000 at 4 per cent was raised for public works and rail-
ways, and the State guaranteed further a 4 per cent interest on another £i,o:o,oco
for the Upper Congo Great Lakes Railway. In 1904 (apparently) another loan of
£1,200,000 was issued or partly issued at 3 per cent, and between 1906 and 1907,
£643,600 was added to the public debt.
The total indebtedness — loans sanctioned and issued — of the Congo State may
be calculated as high as £16,887,242 ; but if the lottery loan (,£6,000,000) f jggg j s
deducted (as this seems in some way to have been cancelled) and if the amount due
to Belgium (£1,272,176) is omitted (as it would be effaced on annexation), there results
a sum of £g,6/j,o66. Deduct from this the ,£5,600,000 of unissued 1905 bonds and
the debt bearing interest may certainly be stated at £4,01 5,066, bearing interest at the
rate of £166,028 per annum. But the issued debt is now officially stated at
£4,4 r S,o66: this no doubt includes the £16,888 owing to the foreign subscribers to
the funds of the Comite" du Haut Congo, the three millions spent on railway con-
struction by the State or private companies, but leaves out the whole of the projected
issue of bonds to bearer authorized in 1904.
It is charged against King Leopold's administration that out of the debt incurred
by 1888, over ,£1,000,000 has not been spent on the Congo but in Belgium, and on
objects in no way connected with the Congo Free State. This computation is made
after excepting some £300,000 spent on the Tervueren Congo Museum and on first-
class scientific research — an expenditure to which no objection can be raised.
Apart from all this, the King is said to have made an average profit yearly, since
1895, out of the produce of the Domaine de la Couronne of £300,000. Calculate this
for only ten years instead of twelve and you have £3,000,000. It is also stated that
the royal share in the profits of the concessionnaire companies since 1895 amounts
to about ,£2,000,000.
Assuming that King Leopold had no intention of being a mere company
452 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
force in 1892 the State could only raise revenue by internal
taxation, by the sale of lands, the issue of certain licences, and
the levying of export duties on produce. The eagerness with
which it had put even these limited powers into force drew
many a protest from the British, Dutch, and Portuguese
merchants of the Lower Congo, as well as from the mission-
aries, Catholic as well as Protestant. (One of the French
Fathers remarked bitterly in conversation with a British Consul
that the only thing in Congo life the State Government did not
tax was fever.)
After 1892, import duties, limited of course to "a moderate
tariff " * as provided for by the Brussels and Berlin Acts, were
imposed on the frontiers of the Congo Free State, and of
course added appreciably to the revenue.
From 1890 it might be said that the country of Belgium
had relieved King Leopold of financial responsibility for the
deficits still occurring in Congo administration, by their agree-
ments to furnish or to guarantee loans to the Congo State.
King Leopold therefore after 1890, or at latest 1901, was not
called upon to make further sacrifices for the creation of a
civilized state of Central Africa. He should therefore — some
might say — have regulated the advance of his rule over the
promoter, or of turning his sovereignty over Central Africa into a money-making
enterprise, pure and simple ; yet agreeing that he had decided to abandon the role of
disinterested philanthropist and had become a hard-headed man of business anxious
to get his money back and a trifle over; grant him a theoretical "civil list" of
,£20,000 a year from 1886 to 1907 : and his account with the Congo Free State would
stand thus :—
Cr,
Money spent out of the Privy Purse :
1879-90 (say) ....
1891-1901 (say) ....
Twenty-two years' "civil list" as
Sovereign of the Congo State at
.£20,000 a year
Interest at 4 per cent for (say) seven-
teen years on ^500,000 invested
on State creation and mainten-
ance (1879-90) and on ,£400,000
for (say) seven years
£
500,000
400,000
440,000
452,000
^1,792,000
Dr.
Money received :
(1) Revenue from Crown Domain
(say) . . . . _ .
(2) Ftomconcessii>tmairecompa.nies
(say)
(3) Balance of loans or surplus of
Congo revenues (say) .
£
3,000,000
2,000,000
1,000,000
;£6, 000,000
The figures given in this note are mostly quoted from the statements made in the
Debate on the Congo which took place in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives
during February-March 1906, together with other and more recent sources of infor-
mation, mostly Belgian. The amounts on the creditor side are somewhat over-
estimated, those on the debtor side are stated under the totals usually quoted. If this
account be approximately correct it will be seen that King Leopold owes the Congo
Government and the public opinion of the civilized world— and his own record in
history — a sum of over £4,000,000. (H. H. J.)
1 Though somehow or other this ranges as high as 30 per cent ad valorem on
some articles and is never less than 10 per cent.
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 453
Congo basin in proportion to the revenue which could be
gathered in without oppression.
The argument of his apologists would be that
under the circumstances this was a "counsel of per-
fection." The six or seven thousand miles of Congo
frontier bordering on the vaguely defined Spheres
of influence or Protectorates of France, Britain,
Germany, and Portugal required patrolling. None
of these Powers were particularly scrupulous in the
years that followed 1885 in refraining from a desire
to filch chunks of territory from King Leopold's
domain. In fact, soon after the Act of Berlin was
signed the contributory Powers began to regret that
they had handed over such a magnificent territory
to the control of the Belgian Sovereign. The
journeys of Grenfell, Wissmann, and Wolf; of the
De Brazza brothers, and of Vangele ; of Delcom-
mune, Thys, Dhanis, Hanolet, Roget, G. and P. Le
Marinel, and Hodister, had revealed the rare possi-
bilities of this interior basin of the Congo for water
transport, its immense stores of ivory and amazing
productiveness in rubber. There were also the
minerals of Katanga, already ear-marked by such | :
bold British spirits as contemplated an advance from
the Zambezi northwards. We will take it for granted
therefore that in desiring- to found a magnificent
colonial domain for Belgium while at the same time
bringing a wholesome civilization into the blood-
soaked basin of the Congo, the King of the Belgians
felt that he must obtain other resources than loans
from his little country on the North Sea. Perhaps,
also, he may have legitimately regarded the ex-
penditure of his own moneys and the fortune of
his dead son in the light of an advance, a loan to
Belgium and to the Congo, to be subsequently jromthe'umwMu"
°. , 1 , 111 1 bangi, pared down
repaid when the country could be governed at a and pierced to form
1 r J *-■ an immense ivory
profit. flute - A good deal
Following, as he did so often, in the footsteps of exported Vom the
-!-..... ° r .. '111 Congo was in this
British pioneers of empire, he was particularly struck fo ™-
with the ideas and methods of Cecil Rhodes. Undoubtedly,
from what was going on in South and South-East Africa,
and also from the advice of the American ex- Envoy, H. S.
Sanford, he entertained the idea of these Concessionnaire
companies
234
An elephant's tusk
amongst whom a
large part of the Congo basin
454 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
should be parcelled out. To repay himself for the sums
advanced (we may suppose) and to provide a "civil list" for
the King-Sovereign, he had already set aside the Domaine
de la Couronne — a territory about seven times the size of
Belgium — which was marked out in the very centre of the
Congo State.
Outside this Domaine de la Couronne, principally to the
north of it and of the third degree of S. Latitude, about half
the area of the Congo Independent State was transformed into
die Domaine Prive, in other words became the exclusive
■-"* * ****
■ *!■
iSlS!!®,.
Ws&Tw
235. a wooding post for state steamers, upper congo
property of the State, its land revenues (never, I believe,
publicly audited and accounted for) being devoted in theory
to the maintenance of the State. Within the vast extent
of these State lands were created a number of subsidiary
properties, monopolies which were handed over to private
companies, to "trusts."
What remained of Congo territories to the south and west
of the King's Crown property and outside the State's Domaine
Prive was at first left open ; then between 1898 and 1906 was
allotted to other concessionnaire companies or trusts (see Ap-
pendix). As the Domaine National (formerly the Domaine
Prive) restricts commerce to the State's licensees there is nothing
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 455
left to be exploited by small traders or the general public,
except along the banks of the Lower Congo.
Now if these proceedings had been carried out by a Cecil
Rhodes, a Taubman Goldie, William Mackinnon, George
Mackenzie, or by any other capitalist or captain of industry,
on to whose shoulders the British Government had shifted, in
its customary evasiveness, the burden of empire, they would
have been (in theory) what the world might have expected.
Men such as these would not ordinarily risk their lives, capital,
and energies for philanthropic or even imperial purposes alone.
The policy of conferring sovereign rights on their enterprise
might prove a questionable one as regards the interests of the
general polity ; but if the rest of the world acquiesced in the
British flag being hoisted under these conditions, there was an
end of the matter : especially if the government of these
chartered companies proved on the whole fair and kindly to
the natives and regardful of their just rights.
But King Leopold stood forward from 1876 to 1885 as the
champion of more lofty ideas than those which were quoted
by the various great pioneers of British, French, or German
enterprise in the foundation of African states. It is true that
he was careful at all times to say and write very little himself
which would commit him to any definite line of action ; but
he allowed, unrebuked and uncontradicted, responsible Belgian
statesmen to speak in his name and to give such professions
of philanthropy and disinterestedness as astonished the cynical
world, even of that simpler-minded age of twenty-five years
He was a king, exceedingly rich, grandson of Louis
Philippe, cousin of Queen Victoria, the husband of an Austrian
Archduchess ; and the ruler of one of the most prosperous,
remarkable and distinguished countries of Europe, in the fore-
front of art and literature and replete with the glories of his-
tory; How could he be actuated by any base or merely
money-making motives ? The writer of these lines well re-
members how in philanthropic circles in London, a quarter of
a century back, any such suggestion about the King of the
Belgians would have been regarded as outrageous.
So, on conditions very different to those accorded by the
world at large to Great Britain, France, or Germany, or by
those nations to some company of chartered merchant-adven-
turers, King Leopold II was made absolute monarch of the
Congo basin. He was practically given a blank cheque, but
without the least idea that he would eventually proceed to fill
456 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
up that cheque to an amount of several millions sterling and
pay it into his private account.
To realize the injustice of the present position — the cruel
irony, one might say, of the situation — what should we think of
King Edward VII, if, through the blood and bravery of his
officers and soldiers, the zeal of his explorers which only death
could slacken, the conciliatory propaganda of missionaries of
all nationalities, he found himself sovereign-lord over Uganda
and East Africa — forthwith recognized as such by other
Powers : and that having achieved this position he should pro-
ceed to carve out for himself an estate equal to one-seventh of
the whole British dominions in East Africa ? Putting into his
own pocket (unaccounted for to any one but himself) the whole
of the revenues derived from the whole of the natural products
of a territory richly endowed by nature, employing Imperial
troops to enforce on the natives of this Private Estate of the
Crown a degree of taxation entirely beyond their means, a
slavery of work for the enrichment of himself far more drastic
than the Arab or the native slavery which had been one of the
excuses for British intervention ? Of course neither would the
British sovereign conceive nor execute such a monstrous piece
of chicanery, nor would the British nation permit such an act
of aberration. What would the rest of the world say to such
an idea ?
It may be objected, however, that King Edward does not
supply out of his own pocket the funds which have gone to the
creation of the British Protectorates over Uganda or any other
part of tropical Africa, but that King Leopold did, and that
therefore in finding a parallel to his case we must, as it were,
discrown him, and rank him with a Cecil Rhodes, a Goldie, or
a Mackinnon. But here the parallel does not hold. For
Great Britain in legitimizing the enterprises of these mer-
chant-adventurers took care (very good care in the case of the
Niger and of East and South-Central Africa) to safeguard
native rights. The rule under these men has only been in
fiction the rule of a chartered company. The British Govern-
ment has really considered itself responsible for the actions of
these delegates. No official of any importance working under
them has been appointed, except on the recommendation or
sanction of the British Government. Orders-in-Council, Com-
missioners, High Commissioners, Consuls, or Colonial Governors
have shaped the laws or criticized the administration; and have
actually prepared the way for a time when the direct administra-
tion of the British Crown could be brought into force.
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 457
Sooner or later there has been a land settlement which
has effectually safeguarded the present and future rights of the
real natives of the country. Very often large sums of money
have been paid to native chiefs (great and small) for the right
to assume control over the waste lands or for the purchase
of any sites needed by Company or Government. Where the
right of the native chief to tax has been abrogated he has in-
stead been granted a handsome revenue, paid directly from the
coffers of the British Government or of the Chartered Com-
pany. Most of all, this principle has been resolutely enforced :
that all revenue collected through these rights and privileges, all
taxation imposed on the natives, directly or indirectly, by the con-
trolling Power, has been publicly audited and accounted for.
No one but a madman could say that the public revenues of
Uganda, of Nigeria, of Nyasaland find their way into King
Edward's private purse. The Chartered Company of South
Africa still remains, but it is pretty well known to a penny how
the revenue it collects is expended, and as we all know, such
revenue does not yet meet the cost of expenditure and put
a profit into the pockets of the Company's shareholders who
found the capital to start this enterprise.
It has been quite otherwise in the Congo Free State. The
territory has been divided up into a State preserve or into
areas entrusted to monopolist companies, in some or all of
which the King, as Sovereign of the State or as private specu-
lator, has a small or a great proportion of the profits. Then
there is the Domaine de la Couronne, the profits from which —
said to be three millions of pounds — must have gone far to re-
pay King Leopold for his first subsidies employed in creating
the Congo Free State. As to the remainder, it is still State
land, but not the land of a constitutional state, the actions of
which are governed by the people's will, and the expenditure of
•which is publicly audited and controlled.
Let us endeavour to expound this problem : without the
traditional British cant and hypocrisy. We need not strive to
postulate an Utopia in what I must persist in calling "the
blood-soaked basin of the Congo." Just for a year or two the
world did think that Leopold 1 1 was going to set an example,
that he was about to perform an act of stupendous philanthropy
by introducing a genial and appropriate civilization into Central
Africa at his own expense, by creating a native confederation of
chiefs in the Congo basin which might end, perhaps conter-
minously with the King's life, in bringing a great Liberia into
existence — a Liberia not framed on the impossible models of
458 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
New England, but on the lines of a national, original, indigenous,
and reasonable African civilization.
But finding that the King was after all no more than the
King of the Belgians, desirous of endowing his country with a
colonial domain more magnificent than that of Holland, the
world need only have shrugged its shoulders if he had followed
the example of Great Britain and created or allowed to come
into existence these concessionnaire companies which have
done so much for the initial development of British Africa and
British Oceania, Borneo, and India. I do not go to the lengths
of some theorists in Great Britain who would endow the actual
natives of the Congo with all the soil of the Congo and all its
products. I do not think the territorial rights of all the peoples
on the Congo worth such generous consideration as that of
a settled European peasantry. Some of them were nomads or
semi-nomads. Others were leading a life little superior to that
of the wild beasts of the field. Several tribes had just arrived
on the scene as ferocious conquerors, with no more legitimate
rights than those of the King of the Belgians.
But I return to my original argument, that the statesman-
ship which attended the inception of the Congo Free State was
of a puerile and petty description. If King Leopold had had
a really great mind or had followed the advice of a wise
counsellor, he would have commenced and patiently carried out
a land settlement on the lines of those which have been or are
being brought into force in British and French dominions in
tropical Africa. A wise discrimination could have been exer-
cised between tribe and tribe. To a race of settled agricul-
turists almost all the land would have been allotted individually
or communally. A race of savages would have been invited to
settle down quietly with the promise of an eventual survey and
allotment of lands.
There would still have remained vast vacant areas, primeval
forests, uninhabited savannas, desolate mountains rich in
minerals. All this ownerless property might reasonably have
been vested in the Crown, in the King-Sovereign, but only to
be administered as a public trust for the benefit of the Congo
Free State and the inhabitants thereof. It would have been
no more improper for the King to have allotted this, that, and
the other tract to a concessionnaire company than it is for
Britain, France, Portugal, and other nations to do the like
(under fair conditions). It is thus that capital is attracted to
new lands, if its investment is encouraged by privileges and
safeguards.
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 459
In the allotment of these lands or forests or mines, how-
ever, due attention should have been paid to existing and
reasonable native claims. The royalties and other profits
derived by the Sovereign from the bestowal of these concessions
should have been put into the public funds, just as they are in the
case of Uganda or the possessions of any other civilized nation
in Africa. The scope of the companies should have been
purely commercial, and the officials and police of the State
should have protected the natives and their rights and happi-
ness quite as much as the property and employes of the
concessionnaires.
It seems to me inconceivable that any reasonable human
being at the present day could find any defence for the com-
mercial policy of King Leopold. Having regard to its results
and to the promises and conditions on which the King took up
his task, his actions in this respect are indefensible. Judged by
his professions and by the terms on which he was allowed to
assume the guardianship of the Congo peoples under the Act
of Berlin, 1 the King-Sovereign has been false to his trust when
he allowed such concessionaire companies as the Societe
Anversoise and the A.B.I.R. to exercise uncontrolled dominion
over large areas of inhabited country where the European had
no previous or inherited rights. The lives and property of
thousands of natives, who if they had wronged one another
often in the past had never wronged the white man, were
placed absolutely at the mercy of unscrupulous Europeans, who
were under no responsibility but that of making the concession
pay. Such intervention as the State supplied was nothing
more than the lending of officers and soldiers to enforce the
regulations of the Company.
Though not so scandalously bad as in the period between
1896 and 1902 (when within the Concessions area in the north-
central and northern parts of the Congo, and most of all within
the Royal Domaine, the misery and bloodshed inflicted on the
negroes rivalled, perhaps exceeded, that which took place else-
where under the Arabs), nevertheless the inherent viciousness
of the present system may be exemplified by the following
instance. Amongst other obligations imposed on the natives of
the Congo Free State is that of labour due to the State in lieu
of taxation. Now in most districts of the Congo those who
1 The British representative, Sir Edward Malet, in announcing the adhesion of
Great Britain specially alluded to the rights of the natives and the British recognition
of the State being granted on the assumption that the native rights would be properly
respected.
460 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
went to pay their taxes to the State as labourers were drafted
far away from their homes to undertake public works, and in
many cases never returned. Either they were badly fed and
lodged, or through promiscuity with other negroes contracted
diseases and received no proper medical care ; or they were
kidnapped by unscrupulous chiefs, waylaid and eaten by
cannibal bandits, or met with other mishaps. At any rate, the
proportion that returned to their homes was small. No doubt
there were many cases in which with the negro's insouciance
they lost the desire to return (apart from the fact that they may
have realized that without money they could not travel several
hundred miles on a steamer, and that the attempt to cover that
distance on foot would be an almost impossible task) ; and so,
when their period of State service was over, preferred to settle
236. LUMPS OF INDIA-RUBBER AS BROUGHT IN BY NATIVES OF UPPER CONGO
down where they could find an occupation. Anyhow, in the
minds of those that remained in the original home this com-
pulsory work for the State was synonymous with the evils of
the old slave trade, for the persons selected for this work
seldom or never returned to their homes.
Then the agents of the concessionnaire company would
come forward, and would say, "We will pay your tax to the
State in money, but in return you must pledge yourselves to go
into the bush and make so much rubber." The natives eagerly
assented.
Perhaps the first year they were only required to work in
all for about a month at rubber-collecting, on to which all hands
were turned — men, women, and children. But the second year
the company would ask for more labour : or it might chance
that whereas Monsieur A., a trading agent of the company,
had been a kind, just man and was contented with the result of
a month's work for the rubber-collecting, Monsieur B. was
greedy for a larger commission and wished to exhibit a larger
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 461
output. 1 He might therefore insist on the people working in
all six months, eight months, at the rubber business. So
this tax on their time from being quite a reasonable one (in
return for protection and other conveniences of life) grew, in
the fierce struggle for wealth on the part of these companies
and the few potentates behind them, into an almost ceaseless
toil for the benefit of the white man ; whilst in their mad desire
to save themselves from transportation or the other (perhaps
exaggerated) horrors they associated with direct service of the
State, the people have been destroying the forest, destroying
the forest, destroying the forest to get the rubber demanded of
them. Their fields remain untitled, and the picture is one too
painful to dwell on. 2 Of course all this time bolder spirits were
leaving the lands directly ruled by these concessionnaire com-
panies and flocking to the standard of Kalambo, the King of
the Bena-Lulua, or to the great Sultans or Arabs of the north
and north-east. To Zappo-Zap they do not go, since they
would be either killed for the amusement of himself and his
bloodthirsty followers or sold as slaves.
This is the picture drawn by Father Vermeersch, the Baptist
missionaries (British and American), the Congo Balolo Mission,
by Swedish missionaries, and by members of the American
Presbyterian Mission. It is a state of things which has been
confirmed by Consular officials of Great Britain and the United
States. It is indeed an ironical contrast to the flowery declara-
tions amid which the Congo State was born into the comity of
nations.
As a general rule, the negro is lazy and has made a
profitless use of the magnificent continent in which he has been
evolved. But when unspoilt, he is willing and quick to learn,
humble, faithful, and imitative ; an apt pupil, separated from the
1 Of late the salaries of the agents of one very large concessionnaire company
have been reduced to between forty and sixty pounds a year ! The rest of the
agents' emoluments must be earned as commission. Consult for particulars the
Almanack du Congo, 1904 : published at Lou vain by the Pretres du Cosur de Jesus.
2 Vice-Consul G. B. Michell writes on December 26th 1906, in a despatch to the
British Government (dealing with the banks of the northern Congo) : —
" Here, as elsewhere, the natives appeared to me to be so heavily taxed as to be
depressed, and to regard themselves as practically enslaved by ' Bula Matadi.'
The incessant call for rubber, food, and labour leaves them no respite nor peace
of mind.
"On the whole, the impression I received throughout my journey was that of a
crisis. I do not mean a sense of danger, but a general expectation of some change.
In every post the State agents said that they could not get the natives to yield their
proper quota of taxation, and there seems to be a nearly universal tendency just now
to think that the collecting of rubber is to be stopped. There is a strong dislike to
this particular form of imposition. Unless they were compelled, either physically or
morally, I am convinced that not an ounce would be made in the country. If the
compulsion were removed there would be universal rejoicing."
462 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
influence of the white man by no superstition, prejudice, pride
of caste, or religious fanaticism. What — one asks oneself over
and over again — what might not Leopold II of Belgium have
done with races like the Baluba, the Bena-Lulua, the Bakuba,
Bagenya, Bangala if he had used his opportunities aright, if he
had applied- the results of the conquests of his officers — legiti-
mate conquests over Arabs and cannibals — not to rack-renting
the country for
rubber, or allowing
others to do so for
the rapid enrich-
ment of Europeans
who had never seen
the Congo, but to
the patriarchial en-
lightenment, the
gradual civilization
of some of the finest
negro races — men-
tally as well as
physically ■ — exist-
ing in Africa at the
present day ? For
the maintenance of
his government he
need have created
only such monopo-
lies or imposed
such taxation as
was sufficient to
raise funds for
public works and
the maintenance of
public security.
Nobody expected
him to exhaust his private fortune or that of his children for
pure philanthropy; but on the other hand it certainly never
entered the minds of the statesmen who pledged their respec-
tive countries to the creation and recognition of the Congo
Free State that the absolutely despotic power placed in the
hands of this one man would be turned to such base purposes
as are now blazoned over the whole Congo basin.
Perhaps the bitterest part of the whole thing is that side by
side with this misuse of the King's power and privileges one
237. BOLUMBI, A FIREMAN ON B.M.S.S.
A typical Bangala type.
'GOODWILL'
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 463
connotes a heroism, a cheerful endurance of privation and
disease, an honest liking for these feckless savages under their
control on the part of so many Belgian officials, civil and
military, men often serving the State for a pittance that would
scarcely attract the most junior officer in the British Colonial
Service.
And all this fine work on the part of Belgians — or of
British, 1 Scandinavians, Italians, and other Europeans — from
1880 to 1907 : instead of resulting in a monument to the white
238. STATE LANDING-STAGE AT BOMWANUA, UPPER CONGO, WITH STATE SOLDIERS
DRAWN UP IN RANK AS GUARD OF HONOUR
man's courage, nobility of purpose, shrewd common sense, and
victory over the Devil of reactionary Nature — the real Devil
that manifests himself in microbe and insect, in disease-germ,
thunderstorm, flood, drought, sunstroke, wild beast, or perverse
human — has left us after twenty-seven years' work a Congo
basin known to its innermost recesses, well governed on its
frontiers, but with its centre devastated by disease and famine,
1 It must not be forgotten — as some additional defence of our right to criticize —
that the Congo basin was mainly discovered by Britons, and that during the first five
years which went to the creation of the Congo Free State 80 Englishmen (as against
81 Belgians) served King Leopold out of a total of 263 Europeans employed under
Stanley.
464 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
depopulated by punitory expeditions, partially disforested, and
absolutely closed to the commerce of the world in general.
As to the atrocities and other misdeeds with which the
Belgians 1 were charged : the atrocities were the necessary con-
sequence of the trading and taxation policy adopted by the
King-Sovereign. To carry out this policy he recruited a large
army from among the more warlike negro tribes of northern
and eastern Congoland. Now no one is or has been so cruel to
the negro as the negro. Put a negro into a uniform, drill him,
give him lethal weapons, a sufficient salary, food, and the means
fftiiJSiSjWiilSP
239. NATIVE SOLDIER GUARDING WOMEN HOSTAGES IN CHAINS
of maintaining a wife, etc., and he will have to be very badly
used before he turns against the European who has initiated
him into this glorious life of power and authority. Of all the
races of mankind perhaps the negro is the most inherently
martial. He worships power in all its manifestations. It may be
a very long time before the spread of ideas unites large bodies
of negroes against the Europeans as a race, that is to say in
Africa. 2
1 Very often the agents of the concessionnaire companies or the employe's of the
Domaine de la Couronne were not Belgians.
2 Though it must be admitted that the State policy in parts of the Congo basin has
come very near to being the transcendent element which is to fuse all internecine strife
among negro tribes and unite them with a universal raging hatred against the
Europeans.
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 465
These native soldiers were employed as " sentries " (posies)
to police subdued districts and to superintend the collection
of commercial products assessed as taxation values, or to collect
labour in lieu of taxes. These men, accustomed, before ever
a Belgian or Arab set foot on the Congo basin, to torture
and mutilate men, women, and children, and to ravish women,
continued these practices as the agents of a far-off white Sove-
reign who had undertaken to be the supreme law-giver and
protector of thirty millions 1 of unwitting black men. They
were equally the agents of the King whether they served
directly under his commissioned officers or under the concession-
naire companies he had chartered. King Leopold must bear
the stigma of their misdeeds. 2
It is not my intention in this book to repeat the work
already carried out so effectively by Mr. H. R. Fox-Bourne,
Mr. E. D. Morel, by British Consular officials, by King-
Leopold's own Commission of Inquiry, by the evidence of
members of the Congo Balolo Mission, the Baptist Missionary
1 Now perhaps only twenty.
2 In my desire to be perfectly fair to the Belgian administration, I should like to
point out that — especially of late — the system of establishing soldiers as "sentries" in
village communities to superintend the collection of taxes, enforce the obligations of
military service, or to maintain law and order generally, by no means resulted always
in " atrocities," misuse of power, or other evils. On the contrary, recent evidence
especially tends to show that in some districts the system has been highly beneficial.
Here is a heartening extract from the experiences of Mr. H. Sutton-Smith, one
of the Baptist missionaries on the Lualaba section of the Congo above Stanley
Falls :— .
" Several of the soldiers stationed at different villages are eager to learn, and to
most of them I gave a primer in the hope that they will find some one to teach them.
On Thursday, August 9th, I called at the village of Wayika, near Lokandu (Riba'
Riba). I gave the soldier a primer and taught him the vowel signs, also a copy-book,
and showed him how to write them. The next morning I had to pass on.
" During the day, on nearing Lokandu, I walked through the quarters of a number
of retired soldiers, mostly young men who had served five or seven years. There
are some 1 50 houses on the north side of Lokandu occupied by them. They have
settled down and are gathering families around them. One and another turned from
his occupation to salute me as I passed. How their faces beamed when I noticed
their children. They followed me along to the beach where the canoe was waiting, and
asked me when they were going to get a teacher. They said, 'We had no chance
when we were soldiers to learn to read, but we would like our children to learn.'
They are fine, intelligent-looking fellows, and doubtless many of them would learn to
read themselves.
"I returned to Wayika on Wednesday, August 15th. I found that the soldier
knew his vowels and could write them well. He learnt the first five consonants
in a lesson, and I gave him a writing exercise on them. The next morning, as I
snatched a hurried breakfast, soon after 6 a.m., he came to me and showed me
that he knew the second page of consonants as well. We had heard him repeating
them over and over to himself the night before, after learning them in the kitchen
from one of the boys.
" Three ypung fellows from the town asked for primers, and when I asked who
would teach them, they replied 'The soldier.' They pressed me to tell them when we
would come to teach them these things day by day, and I could give them no reply
except to say that our work took all our time at Yakusu."
466 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Society, and the American Presbyterian and Baptist Missions,
besides several representatives of the French and Belgian
Roman Catholic Missions in the Congo basin. 1 I could add to
the testimonies and accusations of these persons, the privately
printed evidence of the Rev. J. H. Weeks [besides his pub-
lished account of the Yanjali massacre of 117 men, women, and
children in 1903], and a good many pages of Grenfell's own
writing, accusing sentries and, worse still, the white agents of
concessionnaire companies (some of them Belgian officers) of
atrocious cruelties towards natives in connection with the
demands first for ivory and then for rubber. But I refrain from
giving more than two of Grenfell's instances, from a series ex-
tending over a period from 1894 to 1904. 2 If those who are
1 See the well-known book of Father A. Vermeersch, S.J., La Question Congolaise.
Charles Balms, Rue Terre Neuve, Brussels.
2 "Rubber Atrocities. — 5th of February 1899. Mrs. M. Clark, of Ikoko, tells me
that within a few minutes of their station four people were killed by the soldiers on
one occasion in December last, amongst them a child of two years or so, the cause
being that the Ikoko people would not send the quota of workers. Though this quota
had been reduced by more than one half during the previous few months (namely,
from eighty to thirty for certain days of each month), the men did not like to work,
and so sent their wives. But the soldiers took the wives, and the men did not like
that, though somewhat less than working themselves. The soldiers are very energetic
in getting the workers, and are practically uncontrolled. And the worst of it is that
in some cases at least the officers are afraid to punish their soldiers for these things.
' If you kill So-and-So for having killed Washenzi, we will shoot you 1 is reported as
the open threat in one case where it is known that murder went unpunished beyond a
day or two in the chain. This shooting is particularly sad, a large proportion of the
killed being women and children. One incident in this Ikoko episode was most affect-
ing. Mrs. Clark arriving on the scene saw the feet of a child just showing beneath a
canoe, and had the body brought out. The poor mother hugged the wet body in
silence to her breast, but till she was well away from the soldiers and the place gave
no vent to her grief. As soon as she got within sight of her hut she gave one great
shriek and shed floods of tears. The cruelties of these soldiers I feel sure are very,
very terrible in the places beyond the range of the missionaries' ken, and if within
our narrow range so much comes to view, what must take place in the wide expanse
from which we are shut out.
"While we were at Bopoto a week ago a Lisala man was reported as having
wounded a soldier, whereupon permission was given to the soldiers to thrash the
people. So they started off with sticks and stones and emptied the village, some
taking to flight in the bush, others in the river. These latter were kept from landing
by the soldiers keeping up a storm of stones till the swimmers had drifted a long way
from the village. Mr. Forfeitt took several on board his boat. One poor old woman,
nearly blind, fought frantically as she was being pulled on board, thinking that
enemies had hold of her instead of friends."
A later extract in 1899 : —
" On passing Iringi this Voyage I took a copy of Lindeman's protest to the
Governor concerning Bomu Njoko (the native name of an A.B.I.R. agent) and the
A.B.I. R. having killed some thirty people, of whom more than twenty were women
and children, and this within the Congo watershed and out of Lopori range. Also a
copy of a protest of a similar character where soldiers (and a white man this time)
had killed some twenty, with guns and cartridges furnished by a white man. . . .
Senga of Yakusu went with a complaint to Commandant Malfeyt. Mujoko had him
seized and put in the chain, and kept him there for a week, and sent him back without
having given him a chance of seeing the Commandant. Mujoko wants a hundred
shoka (iron spear-heads used as cash), is refused. . . . Two or three people tied up,
and redeemed by one hundred shokas." [Grenfell then goes on to relate that Baron
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 467
honestly anxious to know where the truth lies are not convinced
by all the evidence above cited (not forgetting the reports of
the British Consular officials from 1904 to 1907, and of the
King's own Com-
mission of Inquiry,
also the terrible
and unanswered
accusations of Bel-
gian representa-
tives in the Belgian
Parliament), they
would not be ad-
ditionally con-
vinced by Gren-
fell's evidence or by
that of members of
the Baptist Mission
resident on the
northern Congo,
whose complaints
are of as late a date
as
1907-5.
Grenfell was so
firm a believer
down to 1902 in
the philanthropic
intentions of King
Leopold, that until
that period he was
very loth to join in
open denunciation
of" the Congo Free
State ; but he re-
cords several
stormy interviews
with the Governor-
General of the
240. THE "CHICOTE" OR WHIP MADE OF TWISTED HIPPO
HIDE WHICH FIGURES SO MUCH IN CONGO HISTORY
It is not unlike the ktirbash of the Sudan, but this particular form of whip
and its name — chicote — was invented by the Portuguese slave-traders of
the eighteenth century.
Congo between 1903 and 1906, who upbraided him in harsh
terms for his soberly worded protests. He was, it is true,
made by King Leopold the Secretary of a committee of
Dhanis, the great victor over the Arabs, is much liked by the people, and that they
are preparing to get up a great dance in his honour when he returns from his war
against the Arabs. Grenfell asks why. " Because Mujoko will have to go, he is
packing up already."] This Bomu Njoko or Mujoko seems to have become an
intolerable tyrant and pirate, stopping letters and destroying them.
468 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
missionaries to watch over and protect native interests ; but as
the Belgian geographer, A. J. Wauters, and Grenfell himself
have both pointed out, this committee was a farce.
British explorers who have not penetrated the large area
which is comprised in central Congoland under the name of
the Domaine de la Couronne, or who have not penetrated
into the lands once occupied by the Societe Anversoise, the
A. B.I.R. Company, or the Kasai Company — and no British
explorer [with the exception of Lord Mountmorres and the
missionaries and consuls] has ever been into these regions
— have come back speaking in terms of the highest praise
of the Belgian treatment of the natives, and of the civiliza-
tion introduced and maintained by the Congo State. Their
opinions may be — like my own have been in times past — un-
consciously biassed by the generous hospitality which every
Belgian shows the stranger who comes to his gates. But still
in the main they wrote or spoke the truth, and it was naturally
a puzzle to impartial onlookers to reconcile the stories of the
missionaries and of certain Belgian politicians with the ac-
counts given by Colonel Harrison, Major Powell Cotton, Mr.
Savage Landor, and Captain Boyd Alexander.
A little attention to Congo geography will clear away this
discrepancy in a moment. Not one of these travellers (in-
cluding the present writer) has ever visited the regions
where the misdeeds of the native and European agents of
the Companies or Domains took place. They have skirted
the Mubangi territories or those of the Ituri and Semliki,
or possibly in one or other case have descended the main
Congo on a steamer, scarcely ever stopping for any time at
a native village. They were, no doubt, quite right (as I was
in 1900) in saying that they could see nothing but good in the
work of the Belgians on the Congo. Equally true neverthe-
less is the evidence of the woes inflicted by the present regime,
which has been collected and sifted by Morel, by Vandervelde,
Daens, Lorand, Bertrand, Felicien Cattier, Father A. Ver-
meersch, and S. Lefranc, or obtained by the British Consular
officials Pickersgill, Casement, Nightingale, Michell, and Arm-
strong, by Lord Mountmorres, and by fifty-two missionaries,
including English, Americans, Canadians, Germans, Danes,
Swedes, and Norwegians. There should also be added the
testimony of Italian officers or officials who have served the
Congo Free State and have protested against its procedure. 1
1 Any reader of this book who is aware of the insidious influence of British
Imperialism, and dreads to condemn any African Government from the denuncia-
241. AN AMERICAN MISSION STATION AT BOLENGI, NEAR THE MOUTH OF THE RUKI-BUSIRA RIVER
[Whence much of the information was transmitted bv Pioblom and others concerning the maladministration nf the Crown TV>mn;n l
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 471
A good deal has been alleged against the Congo State
on the score of Slavery. Some of the critics have been ani-
mated by counsels of perfection. It was expected during the
first ten years of the State's existence — let us say from 1880 to
1 890 — that its officers would almost immediately produce out of
chaos, utter disorder, and a condition of internecine war amongst
twenty or thirty millions of savages a state of perfect peace,
free from any blemish, and, above all, innocent of the selling
and buying of human beings.
This with the means at the command of the organization
was an obvious impossibility. It was all very well for the
State official or the missionary to say, " I won't encourage
slavery by redeeming a fugitive or a person sentenced to
death for witchcraft." But the humane temptation to do so
was sometimes irresistible. So in a sense slaves were bought,
and being grateful to their purchasers remained as servants.
Gradually the system grew on even the best of the State
officers. They frequently paid sums in trade goods to Arabs
and Arabized native chiefs, in return for which they received
numbers of war captives, who became the soldiers, labourers,
porters, and servants of the State. I cannot anywhere find a
record of these men being resold again ; but on the other
hand there is plenty of evidence to show that with most of
the officers of the State the persons thus purchased after
serving a reasonable time (perhaps with a small wage) were
allowed to settle down in some agricultural colony and practi-
cally regained their liberty of action. These are the people
so often referred to in the records of ten and twenty years ago
as libirds.
But a system which has led to a great deal of harm was
due to a law or decree passed in regard to "orphans."
Apparently the officials of the State were authorized by this
law to lay hold of any children without visible father or
mother and hand them over to the care of Belgian religious
missions. Here they were to be brought up and educated by
the fathers or sisters. As a matter of fact this often led to
the original purpose of these Christian missions being alto-
gether abused and their resources strained. And one can easily
tions of his fellow-countrymen alone, might well confine himself to judging of the
maltreatment of the natives under the Leopoldian regime by the exposures of this
maltreatment published in Belgium. He may even narrow down his attention to the
verbatim report of the Five Days' Debate on Congo matters in the Belgian House of
Representatives during February and March 1906, and the series of letters (1908) in
the Belgian paper Le Patriote from the pen of a magistrate, Mons. S. Lefranc, until
recently a Judge of the First Instance on the Congo.
472 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
conceive mission stations that submitted to the control or
patronage of the Congo State being turned eventually into mere
labour-rearing establishments, vast factories of servile labour.
It has been frequently pointed out (by Belgians quite as
much as by other Europeans) that in most native communities
if a child loses its father and mother it is sufficiently looked
after by its uncles and aunts. Grenfell is particularly sarcastic
in some of his entries regarding the utterances of a certain
Congo Secretary of State, who described the greater part of
242. GIRL PUPILS AT THE BAPTIST MISSION, YAKUSU, NORTHERN CONGO
the Congo natives as "beyond the pale of the family idea."
He was rightly sarcastic, because no race or tribe yet met with
on the Congo — not even the Pygmies — can be thus described.
Family ties are very strong amongst negroes. Aunts and
uncles are not infrequently called by the same term as mother
and father. With most of these negro peoples there is in
addition the godfather and godmother institution : that is to
say, soon after birth a man or woman (according to the sex of
the child) is chosen as an almost exact equivalent to the god-
father and godmother of Christian lands — a kindly guardian
who will give an eye to the child's upbringing and training,
especially in the case of the death of its parents.
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 473
This passion for snatching orphans and turning them into
little serfs has done a great deal to break up family life in the
regions of the State which are under control.
Another such idea, which though well intentioned was fan-
tastic and unworkable, emanated apparently from Brussels. It
went forth some twenty years ago that a great deal of care was
to be taken of married women amongst the natives : they were
not to be allowed to work. All this time the State went on
founding its agricultural colonies, partly with a view to raising
a food supply, and partly to make use of the libdrts, who were
slaves forcibly released or else ransomed from Arab raiders or
native chiefs, or prisoners of war. In these colonies it was
arbitrarily determined that there should be unmarried women
on one side (as it were) and men living in a state of celibacy on
the other. The young women being required to work could not
be allowed to marry, or by the laAV of the State they must then
become useless members of the community. Naturally this
extraordinary idea led to the grossest immorality. Either the
men, forced to live in a community by themselves without
womenkind, fell into practices attributed to the Chinese on the
Rand, or — the negro being nearly always absolutely averse to
such tendencies — there was an illicit intercourse between the
men workers and the women workers which led to a very dis-
gusting state of affairs that it is not necessary to allude to
further, since after strong representations from Grenfell and
other missionaries — Catholic and Protestant alike— the law
about married women not being allowed to work, and conse-
quently State workers not being allowed to marry, fell into
desuetude.
By the time this book is published it is possible that
Belgium will have come to terms with the King- Sovereign
over the Congo Free State, and that these terms, of necessity,
will be such as cannot be objected to by the Powers who are
signatories of the Act of Berlin. If this has been the outcome
of the agitation against the Leopoldian regime started in
England, we shall all of us be only too happy to let bygones
be bygones, and as the dead cannot be called back to life,
dwell no more than we can help on the mistakes which the
Government of the Independent Congo State has made. As
regards its errors of judgment between 1880 and 1890, many
of them were committed with the best intentions, though they
arose from the foolish attempt to govern a vast dominion in
Africa more or less directly from Brussels, and to do it through
474 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
persons quite unacquainted with Africa. As regards the King's
policy between 1892 and the present day, I doubt if the Muse
of History when she can take a calm survey of these proceed-
ings a hundred years hence will be able to acquit him of blame.
He may have been deceived by his ministers and representa-
tives down to 1902. Since then one can only imagine that he
has deliberately shut eyes and ears to the truth.
But if Belgium has awaked to a sense of righteousness
and has compelled King Leopold to give up the charge that
he has abused, has stepped into the breach herself as a proud
KwBraufiipWP^ ";::; ' 1-*- *si; '::*
^^^^^S^i||^^fe^^^: ipi
243. MATADI, FROM THE BAPTIST MISSION STATION, NEW UNDERHILI,
nation resolved to have no stain on her honour, even if to
maintain that honour she must make pecuniary sacrifices; then
let us try to remember not the misdeeds and mistakes of the
Congo State, but such excellent work as we know has been
done in railway construction, in agricultural developments, in
the establishment of law and order over the western, northern,
and eastern regions, and last but not least, in the notable con-
tributions that have been made to our scientific knowledge of
Central Africa.
To some extent the drama of Africa has been worked
out in the object-lesson of the Congo Free State. Here we
have seen the last phase of that type of " colonies " which
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 475
began with the Spanish conquest of America, and was not
absent from the middle - eighteenth - century proceedings of
the British in India or from Bonaparte's conquest of Egypt.
There have been distinct attempts on the part of British
pioneers to imitate this procedure towards the natives in East
and South-Central Africa and elsewhere. France has allowed
concessionnaire companies to do things quite as bad as those
attributed to the Leopoldian regime in the hinterland of the
French Congo and Gaboon. Charges of the same kind
have been levelled against the Portuguese in the far interior
of Angola, and it was actions of this type that provoked the
first rising against the Germans in East Africa in 1888 and
1889. Our American cousins were at one time accused of
deeds not altogether dissimilar in the Philippines, and the
Dutch likewise in Celebes and Sumatra.
King Leopold has allowed the wrong-doing to be com-
mitted over such a considerable extent of country and on so
large a scale as to attract perhaps more public attention than
has been bestowed by the Press on other forms of colonial
misgovernment under other flags. Let this one object-lesson
suffice for all time for the Caucasian. The backward races
we set out to educate need for a greater or less number of
years to come under our supervision and control, or — as has
often happened in times past — they will simply exterminate
one another : at any rate lead a life which is uselessly savage,
is short, and more often unhappy than otherwise. But we
are there to educate and not to exploit. Our wrong-doing
not only enrages the savage [if it does" not exterminate him],
but it degrades the morale of the Caucasian. Spain has been
crippled for two centuries at least as a punishment for her
misdeeds in Central America. Thanks to Exeter Hall and
the Exeter Hall spirit, Great Britain has strayed less fre-
quently from the right path. For Belgium I believe a great
administrative career is opening in Africa if she will only
study the past colonial history of Spain, France, Britain, Ger-
many, and Portugal, and that of the International Independent
State of the Congo, and note what she should avoid, what she
may imitate, and above all what good measures she may
originate on her own account.
476 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
APPENDIX I
CONCESSIONAIRE COMPANIES IN THE BASIN
OF THE CONGO
There are apparently five kindred companies branching out from the
original Anglo-Belgian Indiarubber Company. These are : (i) the Abir
(not yet altogether incorporated in the Domaine National), whose
territory lies to the south of the northern bend of the Congo in the basin
of the Maringa and Lopori affluents of the Lulongo ; (2) the Societe
Commerciale Anversoise (now reincorporated in the State domain) along
the northern bank of the Congo, and thence north to the Mubangi water-
shed, practically in the basin of the River Mongala ; (3) the Comptoir
Commercial Congolais, in the valley of the Wamba, an affluent of the
Kwango ; (4) the Compagnie du Kasai, extending over nearly the whole
of the Congolese basin of the Kasai and its affluents (Sankuru, Lulua,
etc.) ; (5) the Societe des Chemins de fer des Grands Lacs, which has
been granted a belt of country extending from the right bank of the
Lualaba-Congo in the region of the Stanley Falls, eastwards to the
Semliki River and the vicinity of Lake Albert.
Of (4) and (5) the Congo State, i.e. the King -Sovereign, holds
half the capital.
(6) The Union Miniere du Haut Katanga, This includes all the
Katanga country bordering on Rhodesia, and as far north as the con-
fluence of the Lufira with the Lualaba.
(7) The American Congo Company, to which has been ceded the
territories along the left or east bank of the Congo between Stanley
Pool and opposite the mouth of the Alima, and also nearly as far
inland as the Kwango.
(8) Then there is the Societe - Internationale Forestiere et Miniere,
whose somewhat vague concession extends from north-west to south-
east along the valley of the Busira and Chuapa across the Lomami and
Lualaba to Tanganyika.
(9) The Compagnie du Katanga is a large concession, between the
upper Lualaba and Lufira rivers on the south and the fifth degree of
S. Latitude on the north, bordered on the east by Tanganyika and on
the west by the basin of the Kasai.
(10) There is the Compagnie du Lomami, to which has been con-
ceded the long stretch of the Lomami Valley from its junction with
the Kwango up-stream to the third degree of S. Latitude. This or
a similar Company has a small additional concession on the upper
Busira River.
(11) A large mineral concession has been ceded to the Railway
Company of the Lower Congo in the region of the Kasai and of Lake
Leopold and the Lukenye River.
I . The Americas/ Congo C° 2 . Comptoir Commercial Congola.is, 3. Comptoir du Hasa.i.4-. DomaJne de la, Couronne.5 .The notorious Abir(Anglo Belgian India. RubberC?)
6.77?e notorious Societe Anversoise. (5&6 Both a.re fused in State lands^)7Compagnie duLomajni.8.Socie'te'desOiemtnsdeFerdesGrajjdlacs.9Comf>agniedul(aianga.
10. Union Mitt iere duHaut Katanga.. N. B. White spaces * 56ate Lands'. .#.... »...Soc/'e£e International Forestt'ereet Miniere.^-}-\-l~8oundarie$ofthem'tning C oncess/on
conceded to the Congo RaJlw&yC? From the Low" Congo to Katanga.. «-.— .-•-.— Boundary oftheCohgo FreeState.
478 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
Finally, there is (12) the Domaine or Fondation de la Couronne,
which is practically the private estate of the King of the Belgians in
Congoland. This is a considerable tract, bounded somewhat vaguely
on the west, north, and east by the basin of the main Congo, the
Equator, and the basin of the Lomami, and on the south by the line
of water-parting between the basin of the Kasai-Sankuru and that of
the Mfini and Lukenye.
Companies 9, 10, and 12 are proprietary. Companies 1 to 8 and
No. 12 hold special concessions for rubber, ivory, or minerals.
The remainder of Congo territory — about one-half — is described
as Domaine National, or (by King Leopold) as Domaine de I'Etat.
As regards the notorious Abir Company, although it has been
repeatedly stated that it has been reabsorbed in the Congo State, it
still (according to British Consular officials 1 ) appears to retain separate
administrative functions.
The following notes on the Societe Anversoise and Major Lothaire's
connection with this Concessionnaire Company have been forwarded to
me by a well-known Congo explorer : —
" The Societe Anversoise du Commerce du Congo was in the beginning
administered by agents of the State. There was then not the slightest trouble
with the natives. Of course the financial result was less favourable than later,
but this was due to the fact that the Lower Congo railway was not finished, and
the transport of the goods to and from the coast was very expensive. Later
on the Company began to administer its territory by its own agents, and as
cheapness of labour was its chief aim, all people who had been refused by
other companies, or who had been dismissed by them for bad behaviour, found
employment in the S.A.C.C. As a rule twelve to fifteen hundred francs
(p/^48 to ;£6o) was the salary paid, and it can be well imagined that people
who went to the Congo for such a slight compensation were not worth more.
They had, of course, to make their profit out of commissions. The really bad
period began when Lothaire was made Director-General. Each factory in the
Congo had permission to keep for its own defence twenty-five Albini rifles ;
and Lothaire established a great number of so-called factories, for each of
which he imported the maximum number of rifles permitted. He divided the
country into different provinces, and made the most important chief of each
suzerain over the others and trusted him with the gathering of the rubber. To
help him in this work a large number of rifles, probably above a thousand,
were given to him to help in the collecting of rubber ; and it may be imagined,
as ammunition was offered too freely to the chiefs, what use was made of their
rifles. When later some of these chiefs, dissatisfied by the treatment they
received at the hands of the Company, turned against it, they were so well
armed and so well provided with ammunition that it was impossible to bring
them to submission. The greater part of the concession of the S.A.C.C. was
situated in the country inhabited by the Buja, a warlike forest tribe which is
certainly the boldest in the whole Congo basin. The Buja hunt the elephant
with spears and arrows, and when attacked by State forces it would occur that
in the middle of the most violent firing, and though scores of them were shot,
they walked up to the troops and tore the rifles out of their hands. When
Lothaire, after having done all this mischief, returned to Europe, the Company
was obliged to ask the State to come and help to put down the different
1 Africa No. 1 {April igof). Correspondence respecting the Independent State of
the Congo.
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 479
rebellious tribes and to obtain the restitution of their rifles. This was easier
asked than done, for whenever the State troops came in force, they found
nobody to fight, as it is easy for the inhabitants of the forest to hide and avoid
them; it was only small parties that were attacked and destroyed. Many
officials have lost their lives in this region.
" The proceedings of Major Lothaire having been found out, it was stated
that if he ever again put his foot on Congolese soil he would be arrested.
Now whatever Lothaire may be, he certainly is a dare-devil, and when one day
in Belgium some of his comrades mentioned to him that it would be impossible
for him to return to the Congo, and challenged him to do so, he made a bet
that he would do it, and, in fact, embarked a few weeks later for Boma. It
3M*858s&
-'• .' ■=:*=>-• *'■ «°i
A %u :
m
m
m
■h
244. THE CONGO STATE POST OF BUMBA, NORTHERN CONGO, AT THE
EDGE OF THE BUJA TERRITORY
may be imagined what astonishment his appearance created there, and the
Procurator-General, M. Waleffe, instantly applied to the Governor-General for
permission to arrest him. . . . When Lothaire had been arrested, he asked for
bail, engaging bis word of honour 'as an officer' to appear whenever required.
Under great pressure the Procurator-General granted this, and Lothaire took
the first opportunity to leave the Congo on a steamer proceeding to St. Paul
de Loanda, from whence he returned to Europe on a Portuguese steamer.
When asked whether he did not attach more value to his word of honour, he
is said to have replied that he only gave his word of honour as an officer, and
that at that time he had left the army for several years.
" Now the administration of the Company has been taken over by the
State, but it will be years before the old order can be restored."
The same correspondent, not an Englishman, comments on the
contradictory traits of Lothaire's nature. His remarks find some
4 8o GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
corroboration in Grenfell's journals. According to my correspondent,
Lothaire was the kindest comrade, tenderest nurse of brother officers :
brave to recklessness, ready to risk his life for others again and again,
a man who would devote all his spare time to those who were sick or
wounded, yet who could be pitiless and cruel towards the natives. He
was, of course, denounced by every British newspaper of importance,
not only for his putting Stokes to death, but for his ruthless administra-
tion of the S.A.C.C. territory in northern Congoland. Yet he was so
great an admirer of England, that during the Boer War he challenged
a brother officer in a Brussels cafe to fight him in a duel or withdraw
the offensive remarks he had made about England and Englishmen.
APPENDIX II
EXTRACTS FROM A PRIVATE LETTER WRITTEN
BY GRENFELL, DECEMBER 29TH 1902
"I promised to write to you in regard to Congo affairs. ... I have been
greatly perplexed, as you can well imagine, at the disparity in so many cases
between the results of the Congo State administration and the high and bene-
ficent purposes of the Central Authority. For, while I thank God for the
introduction of law and order and for the protection of life and property
over wide areas where in early days I was daily in contact with a state of law-
lessness and misery that makes my old diaries blood-curdling and horrible,
yet I cannot help being grieved at the hardships endured by the people in dis-
tricts removed from the surveillance of the authorities. I wish most fervently
for serious reform. The operations of which I complain are found in the collec-
tion of taxes in kind and in the form of labour. If the taxes bore equally all
round, and if labour was equally shared by all the people, the hardship would
scarcely be felt. But the Administration is so scattered that it is only effective
in detail at places, and at those places where a white man backed by twenty or
thirty soldiers occupies a post to himself fifty or a hundred miles from any other
white man, and has to garrison five thousand square miles of territory, the
pressure is often localized to a severe if not to a dangerous degree. An official
does not do the collecting himself. His soldiers do it, and their aim is to get
the levies in quickly rather than to distribute them fairly. It was the difficulty
of controlling the collection of the taxes in the Equatorial Sudan that so vexed
poor Gordon's righteous soul. It is the same that Lugard complains of on the
Niger, and it is the same difficulty which I have to record on the Congo. Here,
a staff of some fifteen hundred Europeans has to fill the various branches of
the Administration, including railway and steamboat services, and control some
seven thousand native troops. The fifteen hundred must do everything that has
to be done in a territory nearly a third the size of Europe. This involves a lot
of rough-and-ready work, much slackness at many points, and stress at not a few.
" If the Code Congolais could only be universally applied, and a regulation
per capita tax enforced, even though it involved as much as a month's rubber
collecting or other strenuous effort, the country would soon emerge into an ideal
condition compared with the present, and the discontent that is very evident in
places would be very largely dissipated, though it is not lo be expected, human
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 481
nature being what it is, that the people would take pleasure in tax-paying. It is
the incessant and varying requirements from the people on the part of the represen-
tatives of the Government that constitute in my opinion a grave danger for the
future of the State. I could enforce the opinion by detailed incidents, but as
these have come to my notice while I have been the guest of Government
officials at various points, I cannot very well do so. Please do not for a
moment think I am referring to atrocities or anything of the kind. I have just
returned from a journey of some four hundred miles along the Aruwimi valley,
and I have not seen or so much as heard of anything like corporal punishment
being inflicted, though here and there I saw persons in chains, and here and
there I saw soldiers striking natives (I must confess the provocation was very
great). Another case — the reported conduct of a slave-trade — I deemed called
for action, and in calling attention to the case it was dealt with. When I tell
you that over a length of some two hundred miles of the Aruwimi valley I
found the administration in the hands of an officer who with a staff of five
Europeans and one hundred soldiers manned four stations, it needs no particular
discernment to discover that neither the collection of taxes nor the execution
of justice could be enforced against the will of the people. In fact it was
evident that those who had made up their minds not to pay did not do so, and
this to the disadvantage of the "willing horse." But non-compliance in the
matter of tax-paying and non-submission to the law are catching complaints,
and it is in these I see dangers ahead of a most serious kind. In my estimate,
the State is not represented strongly enough amongst these sturdy folk, who
have acquired no small amount of resourcefulness and self-reliance in resisting
the Sudanese from the north and the Arabs from the south-east. The State was
welcomed as a deliverer, and was popular everywhere till the need for tax-
collecting arose. Of course it is impossible for the State to be represented
more efficiently except at increased expense and more taxes. The State, I
believe, favours a policy of placing but small power at the disposal of its
representatives in its various outposts, having realized the tendency to misuse
such power. This tendency would be less with men of higher grade than
among the foreign legion which the Belgians are enlisting for their work on the
Congo. There is year by year a notable increase in the number of Italians in
the State service, and also a notable outflow of experienced Belgians to the
better paid Commercial Service, a matter of very grave import for the future.
" The Congo State has been handicapped from the beginning by having had
so largely to pay its own way, and now that the King has withdrawn his
,^40,000 per annum and Belgium no longer furnishes the subsidy of ^80,000,
the financial pressure must increase, the situation being rendered all the more
difficult from the fact that large sums of money (upon which interest must be
paid) are being expended upon docks and the river service, as well as upon the
Great Lakes Railway enterprise. . . .
" The question as to the justice of territorial concessions to exploitation
companies, as I need not tell you, is much debated. Many Frenchmen are
greatly outraged by the system as recently established in French Congo. I
must say, it does not commend itself to my mind, for the people are practically
reduced to serfdom — that I consider to be a mild way of putting it. Still, I
believe eminent jurists endorse the view that the Government has an absolute
right to apportion the forests and undeveloped lands. Perhaps so, but have
they the right to compel the people to collect produce and to develop the
land ? However, I know there is no making of omelets without the breaking
of eggs, and that every great enterprise is bound here and there to tread on
individual rights ; and in view of the high aims and even the grand achieve-
ments of the Congo State it is to be forgiven much. Violent men are found
1. — 2 1
482 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
from time to time to come to the front in every big colonial enterprise, and
unfortunately the Belgians have sent some to the Congo. But knowing the
Belgian officers and officials as I do, I am greatly pained from time to time to
see them all classed together by the British journalist as a bloodthirsty, in-
capable lot. _ I do not think the Britisher himself would have covered the
ground so quickly or effectively as the Belgian has done. He might, by reason
of his experience perhaps, have avoided some of the pitfalls, but it would have
been contrary to history for him to have carried through so great a work with-
out richly deserving the lash of the censor. The Congo owes an inestimable
debt to the high-minded, far-seeing men who in their devotion to King Leopold
took up his Congo enterprise and threw themselves into it with a loyalty
beyond any praise I am able to bestow. Unfortunately, the romance of the
Congo is wearing off, and the supply of wise and capable men is barely enough
for the position of responsibility, and the rank and file are now no longer
actuated by an intense loyalty to the King and his work — this to the dis-
advantage of the Congo. . . . George Grenfell."
To another correspondent in 1903 he writes : — •
" I want you when you see . . . to bring to his notice the fact that the
Congo State is doing little or nothing towards the development of a class of
native whose great interest it should be to maintain the status quo. Sir Hugh 1
understands very clearly that British success has been largely the result of the
persistent aim of our administrators to make it a matter of self-interest to an
important and numerous class to support the Government. I know that the
general lot of the Congo peoples is better and happier for the rule of the State,
but the fact is not so evident to the people themselves, and many of them think
the black man when the white man leaves the country will manage things
better. On the Lower River the people now recognize, I think, that the white
man has come to stay, but on the Upper River the people still talk as they used
to do on the Lower of the time when they will be left to themselves again.
' The ivory is nearly done, and the rubber will soon be finished, and then the
white man will go away again.' South Africa seems destined to become a
white man's country, but the Congo can never be so. The white man by the
mere force of numbers can dominate the situation south of the Zambezi, but
he will never do so to the north. The power that is to be firmly established on
the Congo is the power that shall be based upon the self-interest of the people
or upon that of the leading class. A very considerable amount of enlighten-
ment is being acquired by the natives as soldiers in the whole of the black
man's belt. As soldiers, large numbers of the Congo and Aruwimi men are
widely travelled, and have become resourceful. They are gaining a higher
appreciation of their own power and importance in the scale of things, and at
the same time are realizing that in many directions their privileges are being
curtailed. Instead of a large class being created who recognize it as to their
own interest to support the Government, the very reverse is taking place.
" The gradual development of a more or less educated class with a personal
interest in the development of the resources of the country could be counted
upon to favour the stability of the Government under which it prospered. The
world is too old and the circumstances of the Tropics too adverse to allow of
the Congo being successfully administered without the intelligent co-operation
of the heads of the people and without very cogent appeals to their self-
interest. Educational facilities for the intelligent and business opportunities
for the enterprising would soon create a class whose sympathies would be
1 Sir Hugh Gilzean Reid, with whom Grenfell corresponded a good deal.
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 483
in favour of a stable government. True, they might also_ develop the desire
for self-government and lead to trouble that way ; but this I take it is both
much more remote and much less serious than the continuance of the present
social system. Trained intelligence is much more likely to appreciate the
resources and advantages of civilization than semi-enlightenment, which
(following words illegible). Just the measures that should be taken (to check)
the fast-spreading (disaffection) are not for me to say : I'm no administrator, but
have eyes to see the difficulties ahead, and I should be glad to see the State
steering clear of them. Britain would find it difficult to maintain her authority
in Africa if she had
to rely only on African
troops, though she can
draw levies from the ex-
treme corners of the
continent. The Congo
people are all neighbours,
speaking languages all
derived from the same
mother-tongue, and the
lingua franca of the
Congo State is already
spoken from Banana
Point to the Nile. They
live under the same cli-
matic conditions, and
they are in no way kept
apart by any difficulties
of creed. They are
practically as much at
home in one part of
the State as in another.
Officials are not all blind
as to the possibilities;
but Congo service is not
generally regarded as a
career. It offers no pen-
sions. ' It will last my
time' is a sentiment I
have often heard ex-
pressed. In writing as I
do, it must not be
thought that I have any
reason to apprehend any immediate difficulty. The troubles I foresee are in
the future, but how far ahead I cannot say. If the developments that have
taken place since the foundation of the State are continued at the same pace,
great changes will have to be provided for a few years hence, and these changes
can only be intelligently appreciated and provided for by men who make the
Congo service a life career. Doubtless things will last my time, but it would be
a great joy for me to see things shaping away from, and not towards, disaster."
In the same volume of his journal Grenfell appends rough notes,
evidently connected with this letter : —
" There are three divisions of the people, namely, the small Europeanized
class ; the trading middle-men ; and the exploited bushmen.
245. TWO BANGALA SOLDIERS IN THE SERVICE OF
THE CONGO STATE
These men are off duty and in " mufti." The Bangala are the best,
most loyal, and most intelligent soldiers in the State's forces.
484 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
" I see Monsieur — — advances the ' beyond the pale of the family ' idea
to justify the bad treatment meted out. To secure loyal subjects self-interest
must be appealed to. We should hardly be such ardent Britons if we felt it
would be better to be under another type of Government. The good of the
people must be sought if commerce is to prosper and order is to be main-
tained."
APPENDIX III
[In 1904-5 Viscount Mountmorres made a long tour of inspection over
the Congo Independent State (Mubangi, Aruwimi, main Congo,
Lulongo, Busira, lakes Ntomba, Leopold II, and lower Kasai), and
in 1905 presented an interesting Report to the Foreign Office. This was
subsequently published as a book {The Congo Independent State) by-
Williams and Norgate. I am permitted to quote some of Lord Mount-
morres's opinions and impressions.]
Lord Mountmorres admits that the salaries paid to the State
officials are peculiarly low in comparison with those in British colonies.
But he goes on to state that the Congo officials receive an absolutely
comprehensive equipment for Africa at the cost of the State, and
during the whole term of their service are provisioned at the expense of
their Government and receive various allowances for carriage and
postage. They are also inscribed (if they are Belgians) on the list of
State annuities, so that after a reasonable term of service they can retire
on something equivalent to a pension. He writes in very emphatic
terms as to the excellence of the provisions supplied by the State to its
officials, whose dietary, according to his description, is far superior to
anything that can be obtained by the average British official in tropical
Africa. [On this point the present writer can confirm him from his own
experience of Belgian stations in the Ituri Forest. The furniture of
the houses in this, the then remotest part of the State, was worthy of a
good Belgian hotel, and the food, wine, and other provisions of the best
quality.] Since this has come into force the death-rate amongst the
Belgian officials has diminished from something like 50 per cent to
2 per cent, showing how much to do with health have comfort and good
food.
" Mr. Grenfell ... is rightly indignant at the unauthorized and unjusti-
fiable use that has been made of his name by Congo apologists, who unhesi-
tatingly cite him as approving of the whole system as at present existing, and
have based their action in so doing on the generous and fair-minded tributes
which he has from time to time paid to the good that has been done in the State,
without any reference to his very stringent criticism of the evils and abuses that
he emphatically maintains exist. The opinions of Grenfell are particularly
deserving of attention. . . . He has spent, I believe, some thirty-five years in
tropical Africa ; he is a very distinguished explorer and traveller, and has done
magnificent work in the only accurate and complete survey of the Congo River
and its principal tributaries. He is an authority alike on its topography and its
ethnography. He is fully alive to the good that has been done, but he is so
decidedly of opinion that this good has been accompanied by great and terrible
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 485
evils, that as a protest he has declined any longer to wear the insignia of the
order with which the Sovereign of the Independent State decorated him as a
mark of the services he had rendered to the development of the country ; and
he publicly announced this protest at one of the sittings of the Royal Com-
mission."
The summing up of the report of Viscount Mountmorres is that
where the State has directly governed the territories of the Congo basin,
though it has made some mistakes, has maintained wrong theories sub-
sequently abandoned, it has on the whole done great good to the regions
governed, as much good as has been achieved in similar regions of
tropical Africa by the forces of other European Powers. But he is un-
sparing in his condemnation of the " Concessions " regime. For this
regime the King of the Belgians beyond all question is to be held per-
sonally responsible. Although Lord Mountmorres may not draw this
deduction in so many words, it is the only one which a fair-minded
reader can deduce from his pages.
" To place a large territory (that of the A.B.I.R. Company) under the control
of a purely commercial concern, without reserving any rights as to the appoint-
ment or supervision of its officials, without insisting on their being possessed of
any competent qualification, would itself appear to be a direct permission on
the part of the Government to that Company to do as it pleases without fear of
any questions being asked. When in addition to this, however, the Company is
nominally entrusted with the policing of the district, and by the law of the
State nominally deprived of all powers of enforcing its policing authority, it is
only natural that one of two things, or perhaps both, must occur : either the
policing will be wholly neglected, or the officials of the Company will have re-
course to illegal means of enforcing their authority and maintaining their
prestige. In the case of the Abir, it is obvious that both results have followed."
As regards the character of certain functionaries employed by this
Company, Lord Mountmorres is obliged in several instances to write in
very disparaging terms. One of its officials, he concludes, can be most
charitably described as a criminal lunatic owing to the atrocities of
which he had been guilty. In another phrase he refers to the discredited
Mongala Company, which was deprived of its concession owing to the
abominable actions of its agents. Elsewhere he admits that in the Abir
territory the population has decreased to a most alarming extent since
its occupation by the Company. His sweeping condemnation of these
doings is made also to apply to the Lulongo Company, " whose territory
adjoins that of the Abir, from the point where the name of the Lopori
is changed to the Lulongo down to its junction with the Congo." Again
he says : —
" One of the richest and apparently at one time most populous districts
... is being laid waste by the greed and cruelty of an unscrupulous and dis-
reputable gang, whose atrocious actions may, if not speedily and effectually
stopped, lead to a condition of affairs which will constitute a grave menace to
the white man's security in Central Africa."
486 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
APPENDIX IV
The core of most problems connected with the opening up of Africa
is cheap labour. The negro, as compared to the European and
Asiatic, is fitful in industry. He can put fire, energy, strength, skill,
intelligence into his work if he is in the mood, if he is attracted by an
immediate, tangible reward, or is spurred on (as he can be so easily,
poor soul !) by affection or admiration for the white man. But work
for work's sake in his — to him — delicious climate and well-provided
country is no ideal at present native to negro Africa. And then he has
been so often cheated. He has been the butt and the prey of the
shrewd Caucasian since the uprising of Semiticized Egypt eighty cen-
turies ago and down to the last rogueries of South African mine
managers. 1 But he will work — and none better — if you take him into
partnership, convince him of your honesty and treat him fairly.
In reference to the Congo problem in 1894 Grenfell writes : —
" Labour is good for the people, but only if they find some satisfaction in it.
No man cares to go to the trouble of pumping water for the sake of emptying
it into the sea. If his work stands he may take some pride in it, or, what the
great majority much more appreciate, if the labour results in something more to
eat or better to wear, there is an incentive of the most practical kind. . . .
Under the present system (the State collection of rubber) the result is really
forced labour. It is very important for the future of the State that a healthy
commerce should be fostered, and if the people were only paid for their labour
they would become accustomed to making use of the goods they receive, and
what are now luxuries would soon become necessaries. Instead of this, how-
ever, the present system is wasting the resources of the country ; for the people
are destroying the rubber vines, not only needlessly as they take the juice, but
also of set purpose, so as to destroy (as they think) the value of the country in
the eyes of the white man. In many districts they thought their fine farms were
an attraction to the Arabs, and so destroyed them."
The railway enterprises of Belgium on the Congo having been an
admitted success, and the opinions of Messrs. Wauters, Thys, and Goffin
commanding respect in British negrophile circles, at the suggestion of
the Rev. Lawson Forfeitt I applied to the management of the Lower
Congo Railway for information on the labour question in Congoland.
As a result, M. Louis Goffin, late Engineer-in-Chief of the Congo
Railway [and now Engineer-Director at the Brussels headquarters of
the company], allows me to summarize and reprint the following re-
marks on the subject of forced labour : — 2
"Unfortunately, very few of the Congolese 3 can shake themselves free
of the influence of a tradition created by the first necessities in the task
1 Vide numerous Colonial Blue Books.
2 La Main d'CEuvre au Congo ; also Le Chemin defer du Congo. Louis Goffin, Weissen-
bruch, Brussels.
8 By " Congolese" M. Goffin means Europeans connected with the Congo.
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 487
of opening up Africa. If you question them they will reply for the most part
that forced labour is necessary; that if the black man is not constrained to
work he remains idle. This opinion is even shared by some of the highest
functionaries.
"We also— my comrades and I of the railway — held this view during the
first years of the construction of the line from Matadi to Leopoldville, but
the facts of the case gradually modified our opinion. ... At the beginning we
had several hundred men recruited from the lower grades of the population
of Sierra Leone. We were unable to engage the natives of the Cataract region
of the Congo, because their labour was considered scarcely to suffice for the
needs of ordinary porterage between Matadi and Leopoldville on the part
246. A STREET IN MATADI, THE MOST IMPORTANT COMMERCIAL CENTRE ON
THE LOWER CONGO, STARTING-POINT OF THE CONGO RAILWAY
of the State, of the Missions, and of trading firms. So we also recruited
Kruboys, Accra men, Hausas from Lagos, and natives from Dahome.
" We found ourselves, as everybody knows, face to face with great natural
obstacles. Moreover, our black personnel, quite as much as the staff of white
men, was decimated by sickness. Out of two thousand negroes employed on
the construction in 1892, one hundred and fifty a month died from illness,
principally in that valley of the Mpozo so much admired nowadays by the
traveller comfortably installed in a saloon car.
" All along the track one would see corpses of negroes dead of smallpox,
dysentery, beri-beri. At times in the morning we might find before the door
of our cabin the corpse of some negro dead during the night, placed there
by his exasperated comrades as a protest. . . . The men who still remained un-
touched by sickness were demoralized by fear, and had to be compelled to work
by dint of sheer force, the force used being the negative one of depriving them
of all salary or even rations. ... It was, in fact, forced labour. But what
were we to do ? It was vitally necessary to construct this line of railway,
488 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
to suppress for ever the far more awful tax of human porterage along this route
of the caravans between the Upper and the Lower Congo, 'un sentier sinistre,
jalonne de cadavres.'
" Of course we treated our men with as much humanity as possible, and
did all we could to make their condition sanitary. Little by little we succeeded,
and gradually made a selection amongst the black labourers from those races
best suited to the climate. But a panic had arisen all along the West Coast of
Africa, caused by the sick men whom we had repatriated. This rendered
further recruitment in that direction impossible. Then we tried importing
West Indian negroes and Chinese from Macao. They fared no better than the
first lot of two thousand men who had come from West Africa. 1 Still we pegged
**#&*
247. A TRAIN ON THE CONGO RAILWAY
away at the gradual improvement of the conditions of life for black men and
white in this terrible Cataract region. One of the best things we did was the
growth of vegetables and the supply of fresh food material, instead of relying on
preserved foods and tins. Gradually we were able to induce people to come
once more from West Africa, from Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Accra. Under
the most elaborately careful conditions of life and comfort, these negro work-
men suffered no longer in health or morale. But they produced precious little.
We said to ourselves like a recent Commission of Inquiry has declared, ' It is
the born indolence of the negro.' We sought for a method of conquering this
natural disinclination to work. We might, it is true, use something like force
to compel them to work without ceasing during the hours allotted to work ;
1 In regard to the Chinese, a curious incident occurred. They were filled with such
horror at the unhealthiness and the frightful heat of the Cataract region, that not being able
to smuggle themselves on board steamers and get away to the sea, they fled inland like people
distraught. Meeting with little or no hostility from the natives, they gradually wandered as far
afield as the Sankuru River in the very heart of south-central Congoland. Here the survivors
settled down, married native women, and are actually influencing the population ! (H. H.J.)
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 489
but this was an expensive and disagreeable proceeding, and would have ended
by provoking mutinies. . . . We were therefore in this impasse, when all at
once the idea occurred to us to generalize a plan which had been adopted for
certain special tasks with picked men. In other words, we adopted piece-
work, 'travail a la tache ou a primes.' We sought to interest these negro
workers directly in the amount of work they put forth.
"The immediate results were extraordinary. The work at once was
doubled from one day to another. In one year ninety kilometres were con-
structed as against thirty-five the year before, and subsequently the increase, the
vigour, and the rapidity of the work went on doubling. The aspect of the
workshops was completely transformed. Men volunteered for overtime work
in order to ensure the completion of their tasks within the fixed period. They
248. RAILWAY STATION ON THE LINE FROM MATADI TO STANLEY POOL
themselves did justice on any sluggard, and dragged him if necessary to
his task.
" Under this impulsion the aptitude of the negroes for business matters was
remarkably manifested. We were able to state that in this respect it was in no
way inferior to that of the best European workmen. It is thus that we have
been able to take part in the most interesting discussions on cost price,
measurements, and other details of close contract work between the head men
of the black gangs and the white officials. In some cases the gang would
depose their foreman if he was not in their eyes quite competent, or because he
did not worry the white man sufficiently in hauling up machinery, explosives,
or the material of the Decauville tramway ! . . . Those who read this may
observe that in the foregoing paragraph I was dealing with black men from the
West Coast of Africa long in direct relations with Europeans ; they might say
'Ah, yes, you would not get the same results if you applied the system of piece-
work to Congo natives.' We would reply to this that the greater part of our
49o GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
personnel was comprised of people coming from the far hinterland of Sierra
Leone or the great bend of the Niger, who had had if anything less direct
relations with Europeans previously than was the case with negroes of the
Congo Cataract region. . . . We were soon to see how an attempt to interest
Congo labourers directly in the results of their work was to answer. The
completion of the railway suppressed the hateful system of human porteage
and released enormous numbers of Congo men, who were then free to engage
in the service of the Railway Company. The Company at once put them on
piecework, with the result that it was soon able to rely entirely on local labour,
and was not any longer obliged to recruit Senegalese or Sierra Leone men,
except for clerical work or as highly-trained artisans. At the present time
(1905), 1600 Congo natives are employed on the railway as navvies, shunters,
engine-drivers, pointsmen, station employes, labourers, etc., etc. At the ex-
piration of their term of service they return for a short holiday to their villages,
and are replaced by others back from their leave of absence. Their holiday
over, they return promptly to work. They have founded prosperous villages
all along the line.
" What is it that attaches this population to the Railway ? Firstly it is a
salary in good money, and a sufficient salary ; secondly it is the regular rations
of good food [here follow details of the rations]. It is sufficient to compare
the men employed by the Railway with the other natives to convince oneself
that they are more robust, better nourished, keener, and more active. Out of
their salary they can purchase what additional comforts or luxuries they want."
Elsewhere in this interesting report M. Goffin lays stress on the
hateful system employed in the inner basin of the Congo of paying
State or other labourers in trade goods or local currencies. Very often
they do not want the trade goods in question, while as to the value of
the currency, it is so fluctuating and uncertain as not to attract the
natives to free labour. M. Goffin lays the utmost stress on the import-
ance of paying all native workers with good money, exactly on the same
lines as Europeans. If they wish to spend the money, they can, but if
they do not, they can save it ; but the possession of this money is quite
sufficient to turn the negro from a lazy loafer into a splendid worker.
M. Goffin goes on to draw the moral that the State itself and all
commercial or concessionnaire companies [and missionary institutions of no
matter what Church] should do the same thing. All labour should be
paid for in money. If the Company or Society in question chooses to
establish a store and to sell goods at a fair rate, the native, being natu-
rally " dispendieux," will probably spend a large proportion of his wages
at his employer's shop. If not, he will spend the rest amongst his com-
patriots in buying native provisions or in accumulating the marriage
price of a wife.
M. Goffin points out that certain French officials in French Congo in-
troduced the system of paying native porters in coin, with most happy
results as regards facility of recruitment.
If there were more Belgian officials in Africa like M. Goffin, and
if they had had greater power accorded to them, the Congo State
would have been a happier and more prosperous dominion.
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 491
APPENDIX V
RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC WORK, ETC.
ACCOMPLISHED BY THE CONGO STATE
The whole of the area of the Congo basin within the political limits
of the Independent State of the Congo has now been carefully mapped,
with the exception of the extreme south-west.
The upper waters of the Wamba, Saia-Inzia, Kwengo, Kwilu,
Luanje, and above all of the Kasai, still show considerable blanks
or stretches of dotted lines. Mr. Emil Torday has done a good deal
of late as an independent explorer to map the courses of the rivers
between the Kwilu and the Kwango, but there are still gaps between
his researches and those of Grenfell and the Portuguese. Dr. Leo
Frobenius, on behalf of the German Society for the exploration of inner
Africa, has of late a little extended our accurate geographical know-
ledge of the middle Kasai ; but for the most part the whole course of
that river between Maimunene on the north (about 6° 30' S. Lat.) and
Katende near the Zambezi watershed is practically unknown. The
upper course of the Luebo, the middle course of the Lulua are likewise
imperfectly known to geography. These gaps are due to the extreme
hostility displayed towards the Congo State by the native kings and
chiefs, a hostility dating from the first skirmishes with the State forces
in 1892.
There is also a little unknown ground immediately to the west
of the northern regions of Lake Tanganyika. The plateau and moun-
tain region which extends along the edge of the great rift valley from
Lake Kivu to the Manyema country has not as yet been completely
surveyed. With these exceptions, the geographical work accomplished
by the State representatives (for the most part Belgian officers) since
the first great revelations of Stanley, Wissmann, and Grenfell is truly
remarkable, an achievement without parallel in the history of geo-
graphical discovery. In that excellent publication the Bibliograpkie
du Congo by A. J. Wauters, under the heading of " Meteorology
and Climatology," will be found lists of contributions to that branch
of study by Dr. E. Etienne, Ch. Lemaire, and other Belgian officials
of the Congo State. Alfred Dewevre, D. De Wildeman, A. J.
Wauters have all published valuable studies on the Congo flora.
No less than six important botanical publications, chiefly by De
Wildeman, Durand, Emile Laurent, have been published by the State
in the "Annales du Musee du Congo." This Congo museum, founded
by King Leopold at Tervueren, a suburb of Brussels, about 1883, has
issued a very important series of scientific publications besides the
botanical studies of Wildeman. It has employed Mr. G. A. Boulenger,
492 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
F.R.S., of the British Museum, 1 to illustrate the fish of the Congo basin
from the collections made by Lieuts. Wilverth, Wagenaar, and De Bauw
(1897) ; by M. Paul Delhez in 1 899-1900 (a magnificent collection) ; by
Commandants Cabra, Descamps, Weyns, and Lemaire ; and by
Lieutenants Hecq and Demeuse ; also by the Baptist missionaries,
Revs. J. H. Weeks, G. Grenfell, and W. H. Bentley. Mr. Boulenger has
also written on new forms of reptiles and batrachians collected in the
Congo State, and Alphonse Dubois has illustrated some of the new
types of birds, and has given a fairly complete list of the ornithological
fauna. Herr Paul Matschie, the well-known zoologist of Berlin, was
employed by the Congo Museum to describe and illustrate the remark-
able Forest Pig of the Ituri Forest (Hylochcerus iluriensis). M. Julien
Fraipont has just
(1908) issued
jfi : through the Ter-
Jli^M&-- vueren Museum a
study of the Okapia
genus.
But perhaps the
most important
publications of the
Congo State have
dealt with the Eth-
nography and An-
thropology. It is
difficult to over-
praise these works,
especially the fol-
lowing : The Stone
Age on the Congo,
by Xavier Stainier,
the analytical notes
on the Musical Instruments and on all Objects connected zvith Religious
Belief, and the pottery {Ceramics) of the Congo, this last survey being
of unique value and of great ethnographical importance. (The names
of the authors of these last three admirable monographs are not pub-
lished.) Finally, amongst notable publications of the State Museum, is
the Dictionary of the Kitabwa language, by the Rev. Father Auguste
van Acker. Mention should also be made of the Quelques peuplades
du district de I'Uele, by Professor Joseph Halkin, of Liege, treating
of the Ababua and other Bantu tribes on the Bomokandi-Wele
River.
It may be safely said without fear of contradiction that no African
state with the exception of Egypt and perhaps Tunis has been so
sumptuous in its contributions to scientific knowledge as the Indepen-
dent State of the Congo. One thrills to think of what a gain to human
knowledge might have accrued from a proportionate treatment of the
"»'>.*-* 4 -"It
X v
249. D1STICHODUS SEXFASCIATUS, A FISH FROM THE
CATARACT CONGO
Collected by Baptist missionaries.
1 Mr. Boulenger is a Belgian though naturalized in England. His splendidly illustrated
studies of the Congo Fish were published by the Congo Museum in six issues in 1898-99,
1900-2.
MISDEEDS, MISTAKES, ACHIEVEMENTS 493
British dominions in South and East Africa, the French colony of
Algeria, the British West African Colonies and Protectorates, and the
French empire of Western Nigeria. In that direction only is any
approach made to some of the ethnographical work of the Congo State
Museum. The region of the northern and western Niger has of late
been well described from an ethnographical point of view by men like
Binger and Desplagnes. But with the exception perhaps of Tunis, in
none of these regions has the State directly assisted, subsidized, and
edited works of scientific research.
APPENDIX VI
WATERWAYS AND RAILWAYS
A GLANCE at the sketch map on p. 495 will show to what a magnificent
extent Nature has endowed the interior Congo basin with navigable
waterways. Ocean-going steamers from all parts of the world can
enter the profound gulf of the Congo estuary and steam inland to
Matadi, a distance from the sea of about no miles along the windings
of the channel. Then after a journey of 250 miles (accomplished in
two days) by the Congo Railway the traveller or the merchandise is
delivered at Stanley Pool. From this interior basin there are between
four and five thousand miles of navigable waterways along which
steamers can penetrate into the very heart of Central Africa. In
addition, lakes Tanganyika and Mweru, the upper Lualaba and
Luapula provide navigable routes of another twelve hundred miles, only
separated from the main Congo system, in direct water communication
with Stanley Pool, by short intervals of unnavigable channels which
have already been or are being bridged by railway. When the last of
the three main Congo railways is completed (these are : (1) Matadi
to Stanley Pool, (2) Stanley Falls to Ponthierville, and (3) Kindu to
Kebvva) it will be possible to travel from the mouth of the Congo to
the heart of Katanga in about eighteen days. A much shorter route
than this would be from Stanley Pool along the Kwa-Kasai-Sankuru-
Lubefu, and then a short line of railway from Lubefu post to Kebwa
on the upper Lualaba. Other short lines would connect the Lualaba-
Lukuga with Tanganyika and the Lualaba-Laona with Lake Mweru
and British Central Africa as far south as Fort Rosebery. These short
connecting lines would be of far greater service to the development of
Central African commerce, and that of the Congo basin more especially,
than the fantastic, expensive, and somewhat purposeless " chemin-de-fer
des Grands Lacs" which was to connect Stanley Falls with Lake Albert
Nyanza. I f the three short lines (Lubefu-Lualaba; Lukuga-Tanganyika;
Luvua-Lake Mweru) were constructed in addition to those already
accomplished, there would be direct water and rail communication
between Rhodesia, the Central Sudan, and the Cameroons hinterland,
and between German East Africa and the Atlantic coast.
494 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
APPENDIX VII
ARMY SERVICE AS A MEANS OF EDUCATION
(settlements of time-expired soldiers)
Several allusions to the results of enlisting natives as the armed
servants of the State — in fact of subjecting a large proportion of the
male population of Congoland to a military training — have been made in
the course of this narrative. Some of the results of arming this native
soldiery have been adversely commented on by persons quoted in this
book. But Grenfell's testimony and that of other missionaries has
sometimes been quoted on the other side, notably in regard to the
civilizing effects of the colonies of retired soldiers and of the presence
in villages of a soldier or policeman stationed there to keep order. It
is a double-edged weapon in the hands of a tyrannical regime, not only
under the Congo flag, but under other ensigns. If you train thousands
of able-bodied males of a subject race to arms and then abuse your
position as protector and controller of a nation, you are liable to have
your own weapon turned against you. Personally I am strongly in
favour of military training — -three or four years of soldier life for all
negro races. The good results — in the making of sober, clean, intelli-
gent, unsuperstitious, orderly, industrious citizens — are patent in all the
more intelligently governed British, French, and German colonies and
protectorates.
The following story (from the B.M.S. Juvenile Missionary Herald}
by Mrs. William Forfeitt, of Bopoto, Northern Congo, is a capital
instance of the beneficial results achieved in many cases by the military
training of the Congo State.
"The whole district of Bopoto has been troubled for a long time by a
man-eating crocodile. It has had many victims lately, and I dare say has been
responsible for others less recent. For a month we heard nothing of it, but
suddenly it reappeared. ' How are we to get to our fishing camps,' complained
the people, ' now the crocodile has returned ? '
" But deliverance was at hand. An ex-sergeant of the State army, who as
a little boy was a member of our household, has now returned to our service.
He has commenced a school at the camp of his late comrades, and goes from
here every day by canoe, returning in the same way a few hours later. He
asked one day if he might take with him a gun and cartridges, in the hope of
shooting the enemy ; and on his return two days ago he saw the creature some
distance from the bank.
" He had only a small canoe and two boys with him. One, not knowing
how to swim, begged to be put ashore when he saw what was to happen, and
was landed. Then Matombi started after the enemy. He went as near as he
dared, and fired, hitting his prey close to the eye and mortally wounding him.
The creature was too hurt to dive, but threw its head up and with open jaws
tried to rid itself of the unknown thing that had stung it.
.PORTUGUESE
496 GEORGE GRENFELL AND THE CONGO
" Matombi's little companion, terrified at the dreadful fate that seemed so
near them, came and clung to his knees; but he, telling him not to fear, drew so
near that his canoe was almost swamped with the water the animal was churning
up in its agony. Again he fired, calling at the same time to the people of the
village to come and help capture the prize. And the little boy, although badly
frightened, and running often to Matombi for comfort, still stuck to his paddle
and kept the canoe right.
" In the morning the people had said, ' It is no use taking a gun, for no
gun or cartridge can kill this crocodile. He is a witch'; and now they were
too terrified for some time to do anything. But when they saw Matombi
persevering, and that the creature was evidently helpless, they went out in large
numbers in their canoes, every man with his spear poised ready to strike. Then
with a shout the spears were thrown, and the cords attached drew the creature
on to its doom. The shouting and excitement grew every moment ; then, to
our surprise and delight, we heard a song of praise to God for delivering the
enemy into their hands.
" When they drew the great reptile ashore, the people, with looks of hatred,
began beating the dead body with sticks, saying as they did so, 'Ah, you killed
my brother' (or sister), 'and now you are dead. You have made us suffer, and
now we will make you suffer.' And after much noise and excitement they fixed
a strong chain round the crocodile's head and drew him up the hill to the front
of our house.
" One idea that is firmly fixed in the minds of these people is that some
native of the village is the owner of the crocodile and has bewitched it, and
each time any one is killed they say the owner drew the animal from the water to
come and catch another victim. You can imagine with what triumph, then,
they showed us a hole through one of the limbs of the creature. ' There,' said
they; 'now will you say again that the owner did not draw him from the water?
There is the hole through which he passed the cord.'
"Matombi, of course, was. the hero of the hour; but he-took it all very
quietly. He was as pleased as anybody at having got rid of their enemy, but
his seven years' discipline in the army was quite evident in his control of
himself and his feelings, a thing that is quite foreign to the ordinary person.
Said they, ' You must not sleep to-night, as the crocodile will make you dream
most horrible dreams.' But Matombi refused to be frightened and quietly went
to bed. They could not make him either excited, frightened, or angry. 'I
have been away from this village,' he said, 'and have seen and heard many
things, and I can no longer credit all the absurd things I used to believe.' "
END OF VOL. I
WILLIAM BKENDON AND SON, LTD.
PRINTERS, PLYMOUTH
In compliance with Sectionl08 of the
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